/o  .  /'2~,  2-3. 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON.  N.  J. 

Presented  by 

\  \  rress  aSureCMi . 

DS  675.8  . R5  R8  1923 
Russell,  Charles  Edward, 
1860-1941. 

The  hero  of  the  Filipinos 


THE  HERO 
OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/herooffilipinoss00russ_0 


DR.  JOSE  RIZAL 


0F 


oo '  T,  2  1923 


THE  HERO 


OF 


THE  FILIPINOS 


THE  STORY  OF  JOSE  RIZAL 


POET ,  PATRIOT  AND  MARTYR 


BY 


CHARLES  EDWARD  RUSSELL 

AND 

E.  B.  RODRIGUEZ 


Illustrated  wttb 
photographs 


THE  CENTURY  CO. 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1923 


IS 


Copyright,  1923,  by 
The  Century  Co. 


Printed  in  U.  S.  A. 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

APOLINARIO  MABINI 

PHILOSOPHICAL  DEMOCRAT 
GALLANT  SOLDIER  OF  THE  COMMON  GOOD 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


The  great  storehouses  of  knowledge  about  this 
extraordinary  being  are  W.  E.  Retana’s  “Vida  y 
Escritos  del  Dr.  Jose  Rizal”  and  the  “Lineage,  Life, 
and  Labors  of  Jose  Rizal,”  by  Professor  Austin  Craig 
of  the  Philippines  University.  Neither  is  accessible  to 
the  general  American  public.  Retana’s  ponderous 
volume  has  never  been  translated.  Professor  Craig’s 
work  was  published  in  Manila  but  not  in  the  United 
States  and  is  to  be  found  in  only  a  few  of  the  public 
libraries.  Prefixed  to  Charles  Derbyshire’s  excellent 
translation  of  Rizal’s  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  is  a  bio¬ 
graphical  sketch,  all  too  brief,  of  the  author  of  the 
novel,  but  even  this  is  denied  to  most  American  read¬ 
ers,  for  it,  too,  is  published  only  in  Manila. 

The  notes  that  Rizal  left  about  himself,  few,  frag¬ 
mentary,  and  sternly  reticent,  throwing  a  faint  light 
upon  his  psychology  and  character  but  next  to  nothing 
upon  the  stirring  events  of  his  life,  are  known  only  in 
the  Philippines.  In  an  English  magazine  article  pub¬ 
lished  in  1902,  Sir  Hugh  Clifford,  formerly  governor 
of  Ceylon,  reviewed  and  estimated  this  strange  career, 
but  no  more  than  in  outline.  Three  American  maga¬ 
zines  in  the  space  of  twenty-five  years  have  devoted 
each  a  page  or  so  to  the  same  subject.  Buried  in  that 
monumental  work,  Blair  and  Robertson’s  “Philippine 
Islands,”  is  liberal  store  of  information  about  the 


Vll 


Vlll 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


historic  background  of  the  events  hereinafter  to  be 
set  forth,  though  few  readers  seem  to  avail  themselves 
of  even  this  assistance.  John  Foreman’s  well  known 
book  with  the  same  title  has  an  interesting  chapter 
about  Rizal  and  his  fate.  An  abbreviated  translation 
of  “Noli  Me  Tangere,”  published  in  New  York  in 
1900,  contained  a  short  account  of  his  life  and  a  ver¬ 
sion  of  his  last  poem.  These,  with  fugitive  references, 
are  virtually  the  sum  of  the  Rizal  material  the  most 
resolute  searcher  has  hitherto  been  able  to  find  on 
American  shelves. 

Retana’s  work  is  interesting  and  abounding  in  perti¬ 
nent  facts,  but  so  overloaded  with  documents  and  so 
prone  to  febrile  exhilaration  that  it  could  never  be 
adapted  to  general  circulation.  Unluckily,  too,  it  is 
not  always  free  from  prejudice  and  not  always  accu¬ 
rate.  Professor  Craig  was  the  ideal  investigator. 
With  indefatigable  patience  he  went  over  the  entire 
drama,  beginning  with  the  arrival  of  Lam-co  in  the 
Philippines  more  than  two  hundred  years  before,  and 
tracing  the  family  to  Rizal’s  own  day.  He  visited 
most  of  the  places  where  Rizal  had  lived;  he  inter¬ 
viewed  relatives,  friends,  acquaintances;  he  searched 
records,  he  compared  documents,  he  weighed  testi¬ 
monies;  he  wrote  with  sympathy,  he  overstepped  not 
the  due  bounds  of  reserve;  and  he  produced  a  book 
that  so  far  as  it  goes  is  a  model  of  honest  inquiry. 

The  present  work  is  founded  chiefly  upon  his  dis¬ 
coveries  and  Retana’s,  carefully  compared,  checked  by 
reference  to  the  writings  of  Derbyshire  and  to  Rizal’s 
own  diary,  notes,  and  scant  narrative;  checked  also 
by  the  corrections  of  Dr.  De  Tavera  and  others, 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


IX 


and  augmented  by  later  revelations.  Where  a  dis¬ 
crepancy  has  appeared  in  these  records  the  authors 
have  sought  the  best  obtainable  advice  and  tried  to 
follow  the  best  of  the  accepted  authorities.  In  a  few 
instances  (since  there  are  gaps  in  the  story  now 
unlikely  to  be  filled)  it  has  been  necessary  to  adopt  the 
version  of  an  incident  or  the  explanation  of  an  act 
that  seemed  the  most  natural  to  a  man  in  RizaPs  situa¬ 
tion  and  the1  best  adjustable  to  his  character  and 
convictions.  Every  recurrent  “Rizal  day”  in  the 
Philippines  brings  out  thoughtful  studies  of  the 
national  hero,  additional  reminiscences,  or  the  results 
of  original  research  work,  all  by  native  writers.  Of 
this  abundant  material  the  authors  have  availed  them¬ 
selves,  and  thus  have  been  able  to  enlarge  or  to  correct 
many  episodes. 

The  authors  are  under  obligations  to  the  direction 
of  the  Philippine  Library  at  Manila,  which  most  gener¬ 
ously  put  at  their  disposal  all  of  its  great  collection 
of  literature  and  objects  relating  to  Rizal ;  to  Mr.  Fer¬ 
nando  Canon  for  his  interesting  personal  reminis¬ 
cences;  to  the  Hon.  Jaime  C.  de  Veyra,  late  resident 
commissioner  from  the  Philippines  to  the  United 
States,  long  a  collector  of  Rizaliana,  for  rich  material 
as  well  as  for  unstinted  and  invaluable  assistance ;  to 
the  Hon.  Isauro  Gabaldon,  present  resident  commis¬ 
sioner,  for  sympathetic  encouragement;  to  Senator 
Sandiko  for  useful  data;  to  Miss  Sevilla  for  her 
investigations  concerning  Leonora  Rivera ;  and  to 
many  good  friends  in  Manila  and  elsewhere  that  have 
contributed  suggestions  and  corrected  errors.  Mr. 
Benito  Soliven’s  masterly  summary  of  RizaPs  work  in 


X 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


science  and  Dr.  Eliseo  Hervas’s  estimate  of  Rizal’s 
place  as  a  poet  have  been  most  helpful.  Of  Dr.  T.  H. 
Pardo  de  Tavera’s  admirable  treatise  “El  Caracter  de 
Rizal”  (Manila,  1918)  free  use  has  been  made.  Mr. 
Panina’s  “Mario  el  Doctor  Rizal  Cristianamente”  has 
been  carefully  studied.  For  the  historical  part  of  the 
narrative  the  authors  have  consulted  chiefly  Fernan¬ 
dez,  Foreman,  Barrows,  and  the  great  work  of  Blair 
and  Robertson. 

The  citations  from  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  and  “El 
Filibusterismo”  in  the  ensuing  pages  are  from  the 
translations  by  Charles  Derbyshire,  both  published  by 
the  Philippine  Education  Company,  Manila,  1912. 

To  understand  Rizal  and  his  strange  story  it  is 
necessary  to  understand  the  environment  into  which 
he  was  bom  and  against  which  he  protested.  As  any 
description  written  now  of  Spanish  rule  as  it  really 
was  in  the  Philippines  would  seem  to  American  read¬ 
ers  of  these  days  improbable  or  even  fantastical,  the 
needed  background  is  supplied,  so  far  as  possible,  in 
Rizal’s  own  words. 

Aside  from  the  human  interest  that  would  at  any 
time  attend  a  life  so  tragic,  certain  chief  reasons  have 
seemed  to  the  authors  sufficient  to  justify  the  appear¬ 
ance  now  of  such  a  book: 

1.  The  hope  to  make  available  to  American  readers 
the  story  of  the  great  man  and  national  hero  of  the 
people  the  United  States  has  undertaken  to  lead  to 
national  independence. 

2.  At  a  time  when  race  antagonisms  seem  to  have 
been  revived  and  emphasized,  the  fundamental  truths 
about  the  universal  household  are  naturally  obscured. 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


xi 


Lest  we  forget  how  foolish,  in  the  end,  are  the  pre¬ 
tended  racial  superiorities,  it  may  be  well  to  take  note 
of  this  brown  man  that  revealed  a  genius  so  great,  a 
mind  so  strangely  resourceful,  so  wide  a  range  in 
achievement,  so  unusual  a  character,  while  performing 
a  service  so  momentous.  Of  a  race  too  lightly  esteemed 
by  Caucasians,  he  left  a  record  of  which  the  foremost 
Caucasian  people  might  justly  be  proud. 

3.  When  the  tide  is  running  backward  through  the 
world  and  some  men  scoff  at  democracy  and  some  men 
doubt  it,  there  may  be  profit  in  turning  to  the  story 
of  this  long-drawn-out  struggle  against  autocracy  to 
observe  once  more  how  inevitable,  against  all  opposi¬ 
tions  or  frantic  arguings,  is  the  democratic  advance. 

4.  A  temporary  fashion  of  detraction  having  left 
not  even  Lancelot  brave  nor  Galahad  clean,  it  may  he 
worth  while  to  revive  the  fact  that,  after  all,  men  have 
lived  on  this  earth  that  had  other  than  merely  selfish 
aims  and  felt  other  than  merely  sensual  impulses,  and 
find  an  example  in  this  Malay. 

5.  When  the  world  is  resounding  with  the  echoes  of 
a  terrible  war,  and  hatreds  seem  to  possess  the  souls 
of  men,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  the  career  and  influ¬ 
ence  of  one  that  sought  reforms  by  peaceful  means, 
repudiated  force,  and  chose  for  his  motto  a  sentiment 
broad  enough  to  cover  all  human  failings  and  cure 
most  human  hurts: 

To  understand  all  is  to  forgive  all. 

C.  E.  E. 

New  York,  June  25,  1923. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  A  People’s  Wrongs .  3 

II  School-Days  and  First  Impressions . 28 

III  First  Contacts  with  the  Enemy . 51 

IV  Voices  of  Prophecy . 78 

V  “Noli  Me  Tangere” . 97 

VI  Leonora  Rivera . 118 

VII  Again  in  the  Philippines . 130 

VIII  The  Grapes  of  Wrath . 161 

IX  Philippine  Independence . 172 

X  Filipino  Indolence . 181 

XI  What  Manner  of  Man . 202 

XII  “El  Filibusterismo” . 215 

XIII  The  Safe-Conduct . 233 

XIV  The  Exile  of  Dapitan . 246 

XV  The  Katipunan . 267 

XVI  “I  Came  from  Martyrdom  unto  this  Peace”  .  .  .  289 

XVII  Results  and  Influences . 314 

Appendices . 337 

A  Rizal  Bibliography . 371 

Index . 383 


•  ,  I  n  J 

. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Dr.  Jose  Rizal . Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

The  house  at  Calamba  in  which  Rizal  was  born . 32 

The  Ateneo  De  Manila . 64 

Leaves  from  RizaPs  travel  notes  and  sketches  through  Europe  .  81 

Drawings  by  Rizal . 112 

The  original  cover  of  the  great  novel,  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  .  .  129 

Photograph  of  an  oil  painting  of  his  sister  by  Rizal — Miss 
Satumina  Rizal . 144 

Wood  carving  by  Rizal . 161 

Sculpture  by  Rizal  when  a  mere  student,  “The  Power  of  Science 
over  Death” . 176 

Remnants  from  RizaPs  Library . 208 

The  outline  of  the  constitution  of  the  “Liga  Filipina”  .  .  .  240 

RizaPs  cell  at  Fort  Santiago . 257 

Specimens  of  RizaPs  modeling  when  an  exile  at  Dapitan,  both 
self-explanatory . 264 

Photograph  of  the  original  of  “My  Last  Farewell”  ....  304 


The  Rizal  Monument  at  the  Luneta  decorated  for  Rizal  Day, 


December  30  .  321 

A  float,  Rizal  Day,  December  30,  1922  .  328 


THE  HERO 
OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


THE  HERO 
OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


CHAPTER  I 
a  people's  wrongs 

A  FUTILE  insurrection  had  been  followed  by  ter¬ 
rible  reprisals  and  a  hardening  everywhere  of 
the  articulated  tyranny,  terrorism,  and  espionage  with 
which  the  Government  ruled.  Such  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  had  been  its  practice  in  the  long  and  uninspiring 
record  of  the  Spanish  occupation  of  the  Philippines: 
sore  oppression  leading  to  inevitable  revolt  and  then 
savage  vengeance  that  sowed  the  seed  of  more  revolt. 
Now,  as  always  in  that  delirious  procedure,  innocent 
natives  were  swept  to  punishment  indiscriminately 
with  the  guilty ;  men  that  had  taken  part  in  the  upris¬ 
ing  and  men  that  had  never  heard  of  it.  With  the  rest 
of  these  victims  of  insensate  rage,  marched,  on  the 
morning  of  February  28,  1872,  three  beloved  priests 
and  servants  of  God,  of  whose  complicity  in  the  plot 
was  never  a  shred  of  ponderable  evidence.  One  of 
them,  lifting  up  his  voice  in  prayer  for  his  assassins  as 
he  went  along,  was  eighty-five  years  old.  Not  his 
years  nor  his  gray  hairs  nor  those  good  works  that 
had  brought  him  honor 1  availed  to  save  Father 

1  Craig,  p.  83 ;  Derbyshire,  p.  xvi.  Blair  and  Robertson,  ‘  ‘  The  Philip¬ 
pine  Islands,”  Vol.  LII,  p.  170. 


3 


4 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Mariano  Gomez  from  the  most  ignominious  of  deaths. 
With  Fathers  Burgos  and  Zamora,  he  was  garroted 
on  Bagumbayan  Field,  fronting  the  sea  at  Manila;  a 
place  consecrated  in  the  Filipino  mind  to  memories 
terrible  and  yet  grand.  Native  poets  and  orators 
that  have  seen  there  every  blade  of  grass  springing 
from  the  blood  of  heroes  are  hardly  over-imaginative. 
On  that  spot  to  the  same  cause  the  same  dull  power 
sacrificed  victim  after  victim,  ending  with  the  nation’s 
greatest  and  best. 

But  now,  in  1872,  forgotten  medieval  brutalities 
seemed  to  be  brought  back  to  darken  life  in  a  region 
the  sunniest  and  of  right  the  most  cheerful.  Prisoners 
were  tortured  with  instruments  the  world  believed  to 
exist  only  in  museums;  tortured  with  thumb-screws, 
great  pincers,  and  machines  of  devilish  ingenuity  that 
produced  and  reiterated  the  agonies  of  drowning.1 
The  whip  was  busy  in  the  hands  of  men  hired  for  their 
expert  knowledge  of  how  it  could  be  used  to  yield  the 
largest  fruition  of  pain;  many  a  wretched  Filipino 
that  had  in  his  heart  no  more  of  disloyalty  than  you  or 
I  was  flogged  naked  in  the  presence  of  officers  in  whose 
ears  his  shrieks  seemed  to  sound  like  music.  Hysteria 
and  fear  in  the  minds  of  the  dominant  class  were 
added  to  the  racial  hatred  always  festering  there. 
Under  the  empire  of  this  triad  of  the  beast,  men  that 
had  worn  the  gloss  of  the  almost  classic  society  of 
Madrid  became  in  the  Philippines  no  better  than  hoot¬ 
ing  devils. 

To  the  typical  haughty  Spaniard  there  the  Filipino 
was  an  Indio,  an  inferior  creature  designed  to  render 

1  * ‘  Noli  Me  Tangere,  ’  ’  Chap.  LVII. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


5 


service  to  the  white  man’s  needs  and  to  receive  the 
white  man’s  blows.  Each  successive  generation  of 
rulers  had  learned  at  least  once,  and  always  with  aston¬ 
ishment  and  disgust,  that  the  lowly  Indio  was  capable 
of  combinations  and  resistances  that  sometimes  shook 
the  walls  of  Malaeanan  itself  and  started  painful  vi¬ 
sions  of  massacres  and  wild  fleeings.  From  the  begin¬ 
ning  to  the  end  of  the  story,  it  was  a  discovery  that 
first  exiled  reason  and  then  multiplied  work  to  the 
executioner.  Yet  the  knowledge  gained  in  this  way 
by  one  generation  never  seemed  to  enlighten  the  next : 
each  revolt  created  in  its  turn  the  same  astonishment* 
as  if  for  the  first  time  in  human  experience  wronged 
men  had  turned  against  their  wrongers.  Each  genera¬ 
tion,  therefore,  had  the  same  obtuse  notion  of  violent 
repression  as  the  only  answer  to  the  natives’  com¬ 
plaint,  a  concept  that  each  left  with  additions  of  its 
own  to  its  successor.  Hence  the  complex  savageries  of 
1872,  which  might  be  regarded  as  in  a  way  accretion¬ 
ary;  not  a  soul  in  the  governing  class  seeming  to 
suspect,  despite  all  this  rich  experience,  that  the 
essence  of  the  slayings  was  no  better  than  one  revenge 
making  ready  for  another. 

In  those  evil  days  millions  of  Filipinos  rendered  to 
the  dominant  tyranny  what  it  compelled  them  to 
render  and  kept  alive  in  their  proud  hearts  the  long¬ 
ing  for  justice,  the  love  of  their  country,  and  a  respect 
for  their  race.  One  of  these,  Francisco  Rizal  Mercado, 
was  then  living  in  Calamba,  a  little  town  on  the  west 
shore  of  the  great  lake  of  Laguna  de  Bay.  Manila 
was  twenty-five  miles  to  the  northward ;  the  tall 
mountains  of  Luzon,  Mount  Makiling  and  others, 


6 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


gloomed  or  shone  south  and  west;  the  plains  around 
were  fertile  and  well  cultivated;  it  was  a  pleasant 
and  profitable  region.  Francisco  Mercado  was  of 
some  substance  and  a  character  so  excellent  that  all 
the  country-side  knew  and  honored  him;  a  sturdy, 
resolute,  reasoning  man,  wide-eyed,  .square-headed,. 
He  had  prospered  by  diligence  and  deserving;  his 
large  two-storied  dwelling  was  the  best  in  Calamba. 
Overawing  guns  and  the  military  checked  his  spirit 
but  never  daunted  it.  In  his  house  the  Government’s 
key-hole  listeners  and  hired  porch- climbers  were  de¬ 
fied,  and  no  one  hesitated  to  discuss  the  evils  that  had 
befallen  the  land. 

One  of  the  most  detested  instruments  of  the  Spanish 
supremacy  was  a  body  of  troops  called  the  Civil 
Guard,1  a  kind  of  military  police  charged  with  fer¬ 
reting  out  disloyalty  and  the  signs  of  revolt.  In  the 
strained  relations  between  Government  and  governed 
that  followed  the  cruelties  of  1872,  it  may  be  imagined 
how  zestfully  the  Civil  Guards  pursued  their  peculiar 
calling.  Domiciliary  visits  were  their  specialty,  sud¬ 
den  and  without  warrant;  a  species  of  terrorism  not 
then  practised  anywhere  in  Europe  outside  of  Russia 
and  Turkey.  A  squad  of  these  visitors  was  in  the 
habit  of  watching  Calamba  and  the  neighboring  town 
of  Binan,  and  when  it  was  Calamba  that  they  were 
favoring  with  their  attention,  the  lieutenant  command¬ 
ing  quartered  himself  and  his  horse  upon  the  Mer- 
cados,  where  he  could  find  the  best  fare  and  the  best 
fodder  in  town. 

1  Created  after  one  of  the  many  insurrections  and  contributing  to  the 
causes  of  the  insurrection  of  1872.  Craig,  p.  80. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


7 


The  crops  in  1871  had  not  been  good  in  that  region. 
Mr.  Mercado’s  store  of  fodder  diminished  until  he  had 
barely  enough  to  supply  his  own  live  stock.  When 
next  the  lieutenant  came  the  situation  was  explained 
to  him,  and  with  every  politeness  he  was  asked  to  bait 
his  horse  elsewhere. 

He  chose  to  take  the  request  as  an  affront.  Recipro¬ 
cal  hatreds  were  thick  and  rife  around  him;  he  con¬ 
ceived  that  in  some  way  his  honor  as  a  Spaniard  had 
been  impaired  by  a  “miserable  Indio,”  and  he  swore 
revenge.1 

About  the  same  time  the  unfortunate  Mercado  man¬ 
aged  to  offend  another  Spaniard  still  more  powerful. 
For  all  such  visitors  to  Calamba  he  kept  a  kind  of 
gratuitous  hotel;  hospitality  was  and  is  a  sacred  and 
inviolable  rite  among  his  people.  The  judge  of  the 
local  district,  conferring  upon  the  Mercados  thus  the 
honor  of  his  uninvited  presence,  fancied  that  his  recep¬ 
tion  lacked  something  of  cordiality  and  ceremony.  As 
to  this,  he  may  have  been  right ;  in  the  hearts  of  most 
intelligent  Filipinos  of  those  days  the  feelings  toward 
official  Spaniards  were  not  likely  to  be  exuberantly 
warm.  The  judge,  like  the  lieutenant  before  him, 
deemed  his  Spanish  honor  to  have  suffered  and  went 
away  with  a  similar  appetite  for  vengeance,  a  lust  to 
which  the  example  of  their  Government  richly  incited 
them. 

For  judge  and  lieutenant  the  opportunity  came  more 
quickly  than  they  could  have  hoped.  At  this  neighbor¬ 
ing  town  of  Binan  lived  Jose  Alberto  Realonda 
(formerly  Alonzo),  a  half-brother  of  Mrs.  Mercado. 

1  Craig,  pp.  86-87. 


8 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


He  was  deservedly  of  mark  in  his  province;  his  father 
had  been  an  engineer  whose  abilities  were  recognized 
by  Spain  in  an  order  of  knighthood  that  the  son  inher¬ 
ited,  an  order  equivalent  to  a  baronetcy  in  England; 
Jose  Alberto  himself  had  been  at  school  in  Calcutta, 
spoke  English  well,  and  had  traveled  widely.  It  was 
at  his  home  in  Binan  that  Sir  John  Bowring,1  the 
English  linguist  and  traveler,  had  been  entertained; 
and  Bowring  had  put  into  his  book  on  the  Philippines 
a  graceful  paragraph  about  his  host  and  entertain¬ 
ment,  the  good  taste  with  which  the  Realonda  house 
was  furnished,  the  excellent  cooking  set  before  its 
guests. 

Don  Jose  Alberto  had  married  young,  and,  as  the 
event  showed,  not  wisely.  His  wife  was  his  cousin. 
They  quarreled  and  separated,  and  the  wife  seems  to 
have  set  afoot  wild  and  fantastic  stories,  injurious 
to  her  husband.  Divorces  were  difficult  in  the  Phil¬ 
ippines. 

From  material  no  better  than  these  the  lieutenant 
now  manufactured  against  Mrs.  Mercado  and  her 
brother  a  charge  of  conspiracy  to  murder  Mrs.  Real¬ 
onda.  It  was  a  preposterous  tale,  but  to  such  tales 
the  institutions  that,  in  those  parts,  by  a  figure  of 
speech,  were  called  courts  of  justice  were  in  the  habit 
of  lending  a  ready  ear  if  thereby  they  served  any  end 
of  the  dominant  power  or  gratified  a  powerful  Span¬ 
iard.  In  probably  no  other  corner  of  the  world  with 
a  pretense  to  Christian  civilization  was  the  judicial 
system  so  farcical;  the  next  developments  were  typi¬ 
cal  of  the  conditions  under  which  seven  million  people 

'Bom  1792,  died  1872.  He  was  once  governor  of  Hong-Kong. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


9 


dwelt  at  the  mercy  of  perjurers,  adventurers,  and 
thieves.  With  joy  the  incensed  judge  received  the 
accusation  and  ordered  Mrs.  Mercado  to  be  arrested 
and  imprisoned  in  the  provincial  jail. 

This,  although  but  left-handed  and  imperfect  re¬ 
venge,  accorded  with  the  ideas  and  practices  of  the 
governing  class.  The  grievances  of  the  judge  and  the 
lieutenant,  if  they  had  any,  were  against  Mr.  Mercado ; 
they  evened  the  score  by  striking  not  at  him  but  at  his 
wife.  Incomprehensible  or  almost  insane  as  this  will 
seem  to  a  healthier  sense  of  honor,  it  was  a  custom  of 
which  we  shall  find  other  and  more  painful  instances. 
Suppose  the  governing  class,  or  a  member  of  it,  to 
believe  the  much  cherished  supremacy  of  the  white 
race  to  demand  that  an  example  be  made  of  an  offend¬ 
ing  native.  No  nice  discrimination  was  deemed  neces¬ 
sary.  If  the  offender  was  not  available,  retribution 
could  still  be  inflicted  upon  the  offender’s  wife,  or 
upon  his  children  or  even  upon  his  brother-in-law  or 
his  great  aunt,  if  he  had  no  children,  or  if  his  wife  was 
not  within  striking  distance.  In  fairness  to  the  Span¬ 
iards  we  are  to  note  that  this  singular  reversion  was 
not  a  product  of  nationality  bat  of  geography;  many 
a  man  defended  vicarious  vengeance  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines  that  would  have  scorned  it  in  Spain,  so  wonder¬ 
ful  are  the  moral  idiocies  into  which  imperialism 
drives  us. 

Mrs.  Mercado  was  ordered  from  her  home  to  the 
prison  at  Santa  Cruz,  the  provincial  capital,  at  the 
other  side  of  the  lake.  Ordinarily,  traffic  with  Calamba 
was  by  stedmer;  but  a  road,  rough  and  ill  made,  led 
along  the  shore.  The  more  to  taste  the  pleasures  of 


10 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


his  revenge,  the  judge  ordered  Mrs.  Mercado  to  be 
conducted  by  this  road  and  on  foot;  that  is  to  say, 
about  twenty  miles  and  in  the  sun. 

It  will  later  appear  in  this  narrative  that  she  was 
no  ordinary  woman;  she  came  from  a  household  that 
believed  in  liberty;  she  seems  to  have  had  a  lofty 
spirit  and  a  certain  dignified  self-mastery  not  rare 
among  Filipino  women.  All  about  that  part  of  the 
province  she  was  known  for  her  charities  and  good 
neighborliness.  Her  compatriots  liked  her.  When, 
therefore,  trudging  along  the  shore  road  under  the 
custody  of  a  guard,  she  came  at  the  evening  of  the 
first  day  to  a  village,  she  was  received  by  its  inhabi¬ 
tants  with  outpourings  of  sympathy  and  an  invitation 
to  lodge  at  the  best  house  in  the  place  instead  of  the 
village  lockup  as  the  judge  had  thoughtfully  intended. 
She  accepted  the  invitation ;  but  with  insatiable  malice 
he  had  followed  to  see  how  his  orders  were  obeyed. 
When  he  found  the  prisoner  well  bestowed  instead  of 
undergoing  the  miseries  of  the  filthy  prison,  a  madness 
of  rage  came  upon  him.  He  broke  down  the  door  of 
the  house  where  his  victim  was  sheltered,  and,  judge 
as  he  was,  hesitated  not  to  assault  with  his  cane  both 
the  unlucky  guard  that  had  shown  her  lenity  and  the 
owner  of  the  house  that  had  received  her.1 

He  was  as  merciful  as  the  judicial  system  he 
adorned;  as  intelligent  and  as  well  ordered.  One  of 
the  least  of  its  offenses  was  that  this  same  hedge-row 
magistrate,  at  whose  order  she  had  been  arrested  to 
gratify  his  spite,  was  also  to  be  the  prosecuting  attor- 

1  Craig,  p.  88. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


11 


ney,  when  she  should  be  brought  to  trial,  and  the  judge 
before  whom  her  fate  should  be  decided.  Mr.  Mer¬ 
cado,  meanwhile,  had  been  putting  forth  every  peace¬ 
ful  means  to  rescue  his  wife  from  this  disaster.  He 
had  secured  an  attorney,  who  now  presented  a  petition 
that  her  case  should  not  be  allowed  to  come  before  a 
judge  so  manifestly  prejudiced  against  her.  While 
Mrs.  Mercado  lay  in  jail,  this  appeal  went  before  the 
supreme  court,  which  sustained  it  and  ordered  the 
prisoner’s  release.  Before  she  could  be  set  free  the 
unjust  judge  brought  a  new  charge  against  her,  that 
her  petition  alleging  prejudice  on  his  part  constituted 
contempt  of  court. 

On  this  she  continued  to  be  a  prisoner  until  another 
appeal  could  be  made  to  the  supreme  assize.  When  it 
had  been  reached  and  argued,  Dogberry  wisdom  seated 
upon  this  august  bench  upheld  the  court  below  and 
found  that  such  a  petition  was  indeed  contempt.  How, 
that  being  the  case,  a  prisoner  could  ever  escape  from 
a  court  or  judge  manifestly  hostile  to  her,  these  emi¬ 
nent  authorities  did  not  suggest.  But  as  Mrs.  Mercado 
had  already  been  in  jail  much  longer  than  the  term 
of  the  sentence  passed  upon  her  for  contempt,  they 
ordered  her  liberation. 

It  was  now  to  be  supposed  that  the  end  of  this  busi¬ 
ness  had  been  reached,  vengeance  had  been  satisfied, 
the  crime  of  not  feeding  the  lieutenant’s  horse  had 
been  atoned  for,  and  the  woman  might  return  to  her 
family.  Not  in  the  Philippines,  certainly.  Before  the 
prison  doors  could  open,  a  new  charge  was  brought 
against  her. 


12 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


She  was  alleged  by  the  judge-prosecutor-tribunal  to 
have  committed  theft.1 

Here  is  an  incident  luminous  upon  the  society  of 
that  day  and  region;  we  had  better  pursue  it.  All 
this  time,  Mrs.  Mercado’s  half-brother,  Jose  Alberto, 
the  engineer,  whose  unfortunate  marriage  had  wrought 
so  much  of  trouble,  had  been  a  prisoner  in  the  same 
jail,  similarly  beset  with  accusing  inventions.  He  had 
a  moderate  fortune;  therefore  the  story  went  around 
that  he  had  much  money  concealed  about  him.  The 
scent  of  the  peso  was  ever  strong  in  the  nostrils  of  the 
jail  officials  and  court  attendants.  When  the  gold 
could  not  be  found  in  Jose  Alberto’s  cell,  the  searchers 
for  it  reasonably  concluded  that  the  half-sister  must 
have  taken  it,  possibly  by  means  of  an  astral  presence 
or  through  some  form  of  witchcraft. 

For  this  rank  imagining  there  was  even  less  of  basis 
than  there  had  been  for  the  conspiracy  charge ;  yet  it 
was  months  in  falling  apart.  When  it  had  dissolved 
in  its  own  absurdity  another  quite  as  unfounded  took 
its  place.  Justice  a  la  espagnole — in  the  Philippines. 
Two  years  passed  in  these  futilities.  It  was  appar¬ 
ently  the  purpose  of  the  authorities  to  keep  their  help¬ 
less  victim  in  prison  the  rest  of  her  life. 

From  such  a  fate  she  was  now  rescued  by  another 
incident  not  less  than  her  imprisonment  typical  of  mis- 
government  under  which  the  country  groaned.  The 
governor-general  of  all  the  Philippines,  representative 
in  his  single  person  of  the  might  and  majesty  of  Spain, 

1  The  ease  with  which  false  accusations  could  be  manufactured,  as 
Eizal  showed  afterward  in  his  novels,  was  a  valid  asset  in  Spanish 
supremacy. 


A  PEOPLE'S  WRONGS 


13 


came  to  Calamba  on  a  tour.  Among  the  entertain¬ 
ments  offered  in  his  honor  was  dancing  by  children. 
One  of  the  little  girls  by  her  grace  and  beauty  par¬ 
ticularly  won  the  governor-general's  applause.  He 
asked  her  what  he  could  do  for  her.  She  said  he  could 
release  her  mother  from  prison.  She  was  Mrs.  Mer¬ 
cado's  daughter,  and  by  this  detour  and  purified  re¬ 
crudescence  of  Salome  and  Herod  was  Mrs.  Mercado 
snatched  at  last  from  her  persecutors  and  got  again  to 
her  home.1 

It  was  a  populous  household  that  welcomed  her 
return;  she  had  already  borne  eleven  children  to  her 
husband,  rearing  them  with  an  old-fashioned  and 
sedulous  care  not  yet  out  of  vogue  in  the  Philippines. 
Immigration  had  much  affected  the  original  Island 
strains ;  on  both  sides  the  family  was  of  mixed  descent. 
One  of  Mr.  Mercado's  ancestors  was  Lam-co,  a  China¬ 
man  of  means  and  character  that  came  to  the  Islands 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He  set¬ 
tled  at  Binan,  was  converted  to  Christianity,  and  was 
baptized  in  1697,  taking  the  name  of  Domingo.  At 
Bihan  he  married  the  daughter  of  another  Chinaman, 
whose  wife  was  a  mestiza,  or  half-caste  Filipino. 
From  this  time  on  Chinese  blood  was  mixed  with 
Malay  2  until  in  1847  Francisco  Mercado,  descendant 
of  Lam-co,  married  Teodora  Alonzo,  a  Filipino  lady 
of  a  distinguished  family,  partly  Chinese  in  ancestry, 
and  came  to  live  at  Calamba.  It  was  her  lot,  twenty- 

1  Rizal,  in  his  ‘  ‘  Boyhood  Story,  ’  ’  merely  says  her  innocence  was  shown 
and  she  was  released.  It  was  Dr.  Craig  that,  investigating  the  facts  on 
the  spot,  came  upon  the  incident  of  the  dance  and  the  pardon.  At  the 
time  Rizal  could  hardly  have  published  it. 

2  Retana,  p.  15 ;  Craig,  Chap.  II. 


14 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


five  years  later,  to  be  the  victim  of  the  strange  story 
of  persecution  and  villainy  here  related. 

The  seventh  of  her  children,  Jose,  was  then  eleven 
years  old  and  a  student  in  a  preparatory  school  in 
Manila.  Upon  his  mind  the  reports  that  came  to  him 
of  the  successive  steps  in  her  degradation  stamped 
themselves  as  if  in  iron.  Even  when  he  had  become  a 
mature  man,  famous,  accomplished,  absorbed  in  stud¬ 
ies  and  achievements  at  the  other  side  of  the  busy 
world,  the  thought  of  that  great  wrong  haunted  and 
goaded  him.  Yet  it  had  been  no  novelty,  even  in  his 
short  experience;  it  had  been  no  more  than  a  focus, 
upon  the  one  household  he  knew  best,  of  wrongs  with 
which  other  households  were  familiar  and  of  which  he 
had  often  heard.  All  his  conscious  days  he  had  been 
aware,  and  ever  better  aware,  of  the  cold,  black, 
implacable  despotism  that  had  yoked  and  now  drove 
and  lashed  his  people.  He  knew  well  the  hateful  ex¬ 
cesses  of  the  Civil  Guard,  the  license  and  arrogance  of 
the  governing  class,  the  extortion  and  thefts,  the 
infinite  scorn  in  which  the  subject  race  was  held,  the 
intolerable  parody  of  justice,  the  bitter  jest  of  the  code 
and  the  court-room,  the  flogging  of  men,  the  violating 
of  women,  the  protected  murderers,  the  rapists  that 
went  untouched  and  unabashed.  When  he  was  only 
five  years  old  he  used  to  sit  on  the  shore  of  that  beauti¬ 
ful  green  lake,  the  Laguna  de  Bay,  and  look  across 
it  and  wonder  if  the  people  that  lived  on  the  other  side 
were  as  wretched  as  the  people  of  Calamba,  whether 
they  were  beaten,  kicked  and  trodden  upon,  whether 
they  dwelt  in  the  same  terror  of  the  Civil  Guards  and 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


15 


the  flogging-rods.1  He  said  years  afterward  that  even 
then  he  had  a  distinct  conviction  that  these  things  were 
not  necessary  and  that  there  must  be  some  region  on 
the  earth  where  its  children  could  be  happy  and  enjoy 
the  sunshine,  the  flowers,  and  the  beautiful  things  that 
seemed  made  for  their  delight. 

Many  of  the  troubles  that  fell  upon  his  neighbors, 
or  were  laid  upon  them  by  the  existing  System,  were 
troubles  about  land;  and  before  ever  the  malicious 
lieutenant  had  begun  his  revenges  upon  the  family, 
young  Jose  was  familiar  with  stories  of  the  wrongs 
the  so-called  courts  inflicted  upon  tenants  and  the  men 
that  tilled  the  farms.  It  was  miserable  business  for 
any  child  to  master,  if  he  was  to  make  his  way  through 
life  as  anything  but  a  gloomy  misanthrope.  Yet  such 
things  for  his  people  made  the  world  into  which  he  had 
come.  Doubtless  much  may  be  said  to  excuse  the 
System  the  Spaniards  maintained  in  the  Philippines : 
they  had  inherited  it,  they  had  not  the  skill  nor  the 
inspiration  to  better  it,  and  the  like  extenuations; 
when  all  is  said,  it  remains  but  hideously  stupid  and 
cruel.  In  the  beginning  it  was  medievalism,  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  was  to  be  found  in  the  sixteenth 
century  in  the  most  of  Europe.  Planted  upon  the 
other  side  of  the  globe  as  if  upon  another  planet,  it 
missed  all  the  vivifying  and  enlightening  influences 
that  drew  Europe  out  of  the  slough.  The  Philippines 
stuck  as  they  were;  Europe  lumbered  ahead.  In  all 
the  world  one  could  not  find  another  such  phenomenon, 
the  sixteenth  century  cold-storaged  for  the  instruction 

1  Rizal,  “Childhood  Impressions,”  p.  1. 


16 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


of  the  nineteenth.  Whosoever  might  wish  to  observe 
in  action  the  political  and  social  ideas  of  Philip  the 
Second  needed  but  to  journey  to  the  Philippines. 

Almost  nothing  had  changed  there.  In  Europe 
ideas  had  dawned  of  a  free  press,  free  speech,  general 
education,  the  ballot-box,  parliamentary  government, 
the  rights  of  the  individual,  the  immaculate  nature  of 
justice,  the  determining  of  legal  causes  by  unimpeach¬ 
able  processes,  the  gradual  eclipse  of  the  monarchical 
conception  of  society,  the  passing  of  the  barony.  Not 
one  of  these  had  come  near  the  Philippines.  Govern¬ 
ment  there  was  the  autocracy  of  a  privileged  class, 
tempered  slightly  by  occasional  revolutions,  unlimited 
and  unrestrained  by  any  other  consideration,  and 
carried  on  chiefly  for  personal  aggrandizement. 

Instead  of  freedom  of  publication,  the  censor  sat 
upon  an  impregnable  throne  and  scrutinized  not 
merely  every  word  to  be  printed  in  every  journal  but 
every  book  that  was  imported,  even  in  a  traveler’s 
hand-baggage.  Instead  of  free  speech,  the  natives 
might  not  even  petition  of  their  grievances.  Instead 
of  general  education,  the  masses  were  of  a  purpose 
kept  in  ignorance.  Instead  of  justice,  they  must  lead 
their  lives  without  other  protection  than  they  could 
win  by  a  feigned  humility  beneath  the  arbitrary  power 
of  their  rulers. 

It  was  in  such  surroundings  that  this  boy  came  into 
his  consciousness.  He  had  a  mind  receptive  and 
powerful.  By  no  possibility  could  these  impressions 
fail  to  be  reflected  in  his  thinkings  and  then  in  his  life. 
Other  youths  the  same  environment  drove  into  sullen 
apathy,  racial  fatalism,  or  a  life  fed  with  always  dis- 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


17 


appointed  hopes  of  revenge.  This  boy  they  drew 
along  a  path  of  strange  adventures  and  almost  un¬ 
precedented  achievement  to  a  place  among  the 
great  men  of  all  times. 

The  roots  of  this  story  begin  three  centuries  before 
the  Mercado  family  at  Calamba  was  caught  up  in  its 
heartbreaking  intrigues.  After  what  was  called  the 
“discovery”  of  the  Philippines  by  Magellan,  March 
16,  1521,  Spain  laid  claim  to  the  entire  Archipelago, 
more  than  two  thousand  sizable  Islands.1  Portugal 
disputed  this,  neither  having  the  slightest  just  basis 
for  its  claim,  until  1529,  when  the  pope  settled  the 
quarrel  out  of  hand  and  gave  the  Philippines  to  Spain. 
In  1570  the  taking  by  a  Spanish  expedition  of  the  capi¬ 
tal  city  of  Manila  wTas  assumed  to  have  put  the  physi¬ 
cal  seal  upon  this  deed  of  gift,  and  Spain  proceeded  to 
annex  and  to  govern  such  of  the  Islands  as  she  could 
by  persuasion  or  beating  induce  to  accept  her  sover¬ 
eignty.  From  the  first  the  tenancy  was  incongruous 
and  precarious ;  Europe  of  the  Middle  Ages  laid  upon 
a  civilization  more  ancient,  wholly  alien,  and  tradi¬ 
tionally  well  rooted.  What  followed  is  a  tangle  of 
inconsistencies.  On  the  administrative  side,  Spain 
with  musket-balls  shot  order  and  obedience  into  the 
natives;  from  first  to  last  the  rulers  had  but  the  one 
broad  policy,  which  was  to  overawe  the  people  they 
ruled  and  to  subjugate  them  with  fear.  On  the  cul¬ 
tural  side  the  account  was  at  first  wholly  different. 
That  they  might  give  to  these  same  natives  the  bless¬ 
ings  of  Christianity  and  the  gospel  of  peace,  the  heroic 
Spanish  missionary  priests  endured  trials  compared 

1  About  seven  thousand  in  all,  including  rocks  and  reefs. 


18 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


with  which  most  martyrdoms  seemed  easy.  Thus  in  a 
naive  way,  rather  startling  now  to  contemplate,  per¬ 
dition  and  paradise  were  to  be  glimpsed  side  by  side, 
brute  force  marched  with  an  apostolic  love,  and  bul¬ 
lets  were  distributed  with  the  Bible. 

But,  before  the  labors  and  good  deeds  of  the  mis¬ 
sionary  priests,  scoffing  falls  silent.  The  soldier  slew 
and  destroyed;  the  priest  planted  schools,  spread 
knowledge,  bettered  conditions.  He  did  not  even 
wait  for  the  soldier  to  break  a  way  or  to  indicate 
security,  but  plunged  ahead  of  the  armies  into  the 
wilderness  where  he  knew  he  was  likely  to  leave  his 
bones. 

Whether  when  all  is  said  the  general  balance-sheet 
of  the  Spanish  occupation  shows  more  net  advantages 
or  disadvantages  for  the  Filipino  can  be  argued  plaus¬ 
ibly  either  way.  In  such  a  welter  of  conflicting  testi¬ 
monies  the  fair-minded  will  be  slow  to  judge.  We 
shall  have  to  deal  again  with  the  question  when  we 
come  to  see  how  in  his  mature  years  Jose  Rizal  reacted 
to  it  and  how  his  analyses  disposed  of  the  commonest 
of  the  Spanish  claims.  Considering  it  here  in  its  due 
historic  place,  we  may  first  remind  ourselves  that  with 
all  her  faults  Spain  had  at  least  one  great  virtue.  She 
pretended  no  altruism.  On  a  sordid  impulse  she  took 
the  Islands ;  she  kept  them  merely  as  goods. 

As  to  this  debated  point  the  findings  of  Dr.  T.  H. 
Pardo  de  Tavera  seem  clear.1 

‘ ‘  Those  that  are  wont  to  depreciate  civilization  and 
material  development  to  the  point  of  being  inexact/ ’ 
he  says,  ‘  ‘  cite  the  voyage  of  Magellan  as  an  enterprise 

1  In  “El  Progreso  Material, ”  “The  National  Forum/ *  July,  1922. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


19 


{ 


motived  only  by  religious  ideals  and  by  sincerest  and 
purest  charity.  They  misrepresent  or  forget  two  in- 
contestible  facts.  First,  the  voyage  of  Magellan  was 
proposed  to  and  accepted  by  the  King  of  Spain,  was 
approved  by  his  ministers  and  was  carried  out  by 
Magellan  and  his  companions  for  the  mercantile  pur¬ 
pose  of  discovering,  by  sailing  westward,  a  route  to 
the  Moluccas  and  thus  wresting  from  the  hands  of 
Portugal  the  rich  commerce  that  pertained  to  those, 
the  Spice  Islands.  This  and  nothing  else  was  the 
origin,  inspiration  and  object  of  that  famous  expedi¬ 
tion.  Second,  such  a  purpose  could  be  realized  pre¬ 
cisely  because  the  Spaniards  had  achieved  a  material 
development  that  inspired  the  enterprise  and  made  it 
possible.” 

The  more  honor,  then,  to  the  Spaniards,  who,  having 
in  view  only  the  purposes  of  a  bargain,  still  added 
much  to  the  equipment  of  the  Islanders.  They  erected 
better  buildings  than  the  Filipinos  had  ever  known, 
made  better  roads,  introduced,  with  whatsoever  cruel¬ 
ties,  a  better  coordination,  something  like  uniform 
laws,  something  like  a  welded  and  coherent  polity; 
they  discouraged  piracy  when  it  could  no  longer  serve 
to  subdue  the  natives;  they  gave  money  for  schools, 
whether  these  were  efficient  or  otherwise;  they  made 
some  connection,  however  frail,  between  the  culture  of 
the  Islands  and  that  formerly  existing  in  the  rest  of 
the  world.  Yet,  aside  from  the  labors  of  the  missiona¬ 
ries,  the  other  boons  that  followed  their  red  trail  are 
doubtful.  Accepting  these  at  the  Spanish  valuation, 
the  fact  still  seems  to  protrude  that  Spain  found  an 
industrious  population  and  managed  to  leave  it  indif- 


20 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


ferent  and  indolent,1  found  one  style  of  civilization  and 
left  another. 

Prejudice  and  racial  hatreds  have  obscured  about 
this  one  other  fact  that  never  should  be  overlooked. 
The  Filipinos  would  not  have  stood  still  if  the  Span¬ 
iards  had  left  them  alone.  True  estimate,  therefore, 
is  to  be  made,  not  on  a  comparison  between  what  they 
were  when  the  Spaniards  came  and  what  they  were 
when  the  Spaniards  left  them,  but  on  what  they  prob¬ 
ably  would  have  made  of  themselves.  They  were  no 
backward  race ;  they  had  shown  a  remarkable  aptitude 
to  absorb  the  best  of  the  progress  around  them,  taking 
on-  arts,  inventions,  manufactures,  and  developing 
them.  They  made  and  used  gunpowder  before  it  was 
known  in  Europe;  they  made  and  used  cannon  of  a 
considerable  size,  built  better  sea-going  ships  than  the 
Spaniards,  had  developed  more  skilful  artificers  in 
silver  and  gold,  and  had  evidently  a  disposition  to 
improve  methods  and  manners.2  In  those  three  hun¬ 
dred  years,  supposing  them  to  have  been  left  to  their 
own  devices,  they  would  never  have  ceased  to  look  for¬ 
ward.  Yet  when  the  line  comes  to  be  drawn  below  the 
items  of  their  progress  under  Spanish  control  and  we 
glance  across  even  to  the  most  dilatory  countries  of 
Europe,  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  relatively  the 
advance  is  small. 

But  because  the  natives  writhed  under  the  crude  and 
savage  oppression  that  walked  with  this,  we  are  not 
to  suppose  the  Spaniards  they  hated  were  all  bad  men. 
Goodness  and  badness  hardly  enter  into  the  matter. 

1  To  be  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 

2  Craig  and  Benitez,  “Philippine  Progress  Prior  to  1898.” 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


21 


There  came  to  the  Philippines  in  these  325  years  many 
a  governor-general  with  a  worthy  inspiration  to  over¬ 
turn  the  tables  of  the  money-changers  and  bring  in 
righteousness  and  justice.  It  appears  that  what  was 
going  on  in  the  Philippines  was  not  always  ignored  at 
home,  and  many  a  private  citizen  of  good  character 
started  out  to  support  a  reforming  governor-general. 
The  significant  fact  is  that  all  these  efforts  had  one 
end.  Nothing  was  ever  changed.  The  best  of  the 
governor-generals  fell  impotent  against  the  same 
menacing  wall  of  System.  Securely  it  had  been  based 
upon  favoring  conditions ;  it  had  grown  under  genera¬ 
tions  of  greedy  maladministration ;  it  extended  to 
every  part  of  the  Archipelago  where  Spain  had  author¬ 
ity;  and  it  was  buttressed  by  the  power  that  in  all 
times  has  proved  the  most  difficult  foe  to  the  freedom 
and  progress  of  the  masses.  For  such  is  the  power  of 
accumulated  profits  to  breed  more  power  to  make 
more  profits  and  still  more  power.  Here  was  indeed 
the  appetite  that  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on.  The  invis¬ 
ible  government  had  swallowed  the  visible. 

Nevertheless,  for  a  long  time,  nothing  is  to  be  sub¬ 
tracted  from  the  work  of  the  fathers  of  the  church. 
A  noble  zeal  animated  them;  often  they  added  to  it  a 
fine  tact,  much  practical  wisdom,  unlimited  capacity 
for  self-denial,  and  even  self-immolation.  Years  went 
by;  the  missionary  era  came  to  an  end;  there  was  no 
longer  the  splendor  of  the  apostolic  adventure  into  the 
jungle.  A  different  spirit  began  to  possess  a  part  of 
the  clergy;  not  all  of  it,  but  a  part.  Marvelously  rich 
the  country  was  that  Spain  had  annexed  in  this  fash¬ 
ion  ;  hardly  anywhere  else  had  nature  bestowed  a  more 


22 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


fertile  soil  with  a  more  pleasing  climate.  For  two 
hundred  years  the  Government  at  Madrid,  with  an 
excess  of  stupidity,  restrained  the  natural  development 
of  this  Eden  by  narrowly  limiting  its  trade.  Only  to 
Mexico  and  only  by  means  of  one  galleon  a  year  could 
the  struggling  colony  export  its  products;  a  process 
of  strangulation  into  which  some  bugaboo  of  compe¬ 
tition  had  harried  the  merchants  of  Barcelona  and  so 
the  poor  foolish  Government.  After  1815,  as  liberal¬ 
ism  and  the  beneficent  results  of  the  French  Revolution 
began  to  make  their  belated  appearance  in  Spain,  these 
restrictions  were  cautiously  relaxed,  and  at  once  the 
value  of  Philippine  lands  began  to  increase. 

Four  orders  of  European  friars  1  had  settled  them¬ 
selves  in  the  Philippines,  obtaining  in  the  early  days 
from  the  insular  Government  grants  of  estates  that 
because  of  the  lack  of  adequate  surveying  and  for 
other  reasons  were  of  shadowy  boundaries.  As  trade 
increased  it  multiplied  the  demand  for  Philippine 
products.  Under  this  pressure,  forests  once  covering 
great  areas  of  rich  land  were  cleared  away  by  pioneers 
that  settled  upon  the  soil  they  had  made  tillable.  In 
hundreds  of  cases  the  friars  laid  claim  to  such  lands 
and  demanded  of  the  settlers  possession  or  rents.  If 
the  settler  resisted,  the  Civil  Guard  or  other  military 
force  ejected  him.  If  he  sought  relief  in  the  courts 
he  had  only  his  heavy  expenses  for  his  pains. 

Thus  the  monastic  orders  had  become  the  System. 
Accumulated  wealth  had  wrought  upon  them  the  effects 

1  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  Augustinians,  and  the  Recollect  Fathers. 
Compare  Barrows,  ‘‘History  of  the  Philippines, ’ ’  p.  121. 


/ 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


23 


it  ever  achieves  everywhere.  Originally  they  had  come 
to  the  Philippines  with  a  pure  notion  of  doing  good; 
now  they  were  caught  in  the  soiled  entanglements  of 
gain.  Through  all  the  sequel  a  gap  widened  between  the 
four  orders  and  the  rest  of  the  church.  Other  clergy, 
notably  the  native  priests,  continued  to  serve,  accord¬ 
ing  to  their  lights,  the  professed  objects  of  religion; 
the  four  orders  were  four  great  corporations,  indu¬ 
rated  with  profits,  playing  the  callous  landlord, 
extorting  rents,  harassing  tenants,  extending  their 
operations,  and  with  every  new  peso  of  their  hoards 
strengthening  their  influence  upon  Malacanan,  the  seat 
of  the  administration.  So  works  the  law  that  inevita¬ 
bly  attends  upon  accretion.  Gradually  they  dispos¬ 
sessed  the  military,  official,  and  merchant  castes  that 
at  first  had  been  all  in  all.  Such  potency  as  in  other 
countries  belongs  to  banks  or  great  industrial  com¬ 
panies  lay  enow  in  their  hands.  Whatsoever  they 
wished,  that,  by  one  means  or  another,  they  won.  It  is 
not  humanly  possible  that  under  such  conditions  men 
should  not  deteriorate;  the  men  that  sway  so  gross  a 
rule,  the  men  upon  whom  it  is  swayed. 

It  was  so  here.  Th^e  friars  of  the  orders  became 
intolerable  local  tyrants.  In  the  rural  regions,  the 
word  of  the  curate,  if  he  was  of  the  dominant  caste, 
outweighed  the  command  of  the  provincial  governor. 
As  a  rule  the  governor-general  himself  dared  not  in 
any  way  oppose  the  clerical  domination;  a  few 
words  lightly  whispered  at  Madrid  would  be  enough 
to  make  sure  his  recall  and  ruin.  One  of  these  gov¬ 
ernors  that  tried  to  assert  his  own  authority  had  to 


24 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


fight  a  clerical  mob  in  his  own  palace,  and  fell  dead, 
sword  in  hand,  across  the  body  of  his  son.1  The  lesson 
did  not  need  repetition;  thenceforth  the  successors  of 
the  Governor-General  Bustamante  of  1719  made  haste 
to  placate  a  power  so  great  and  so  malignant.  Even 
the  redoubtable  Emiliano  Weyler  himself  was  careful 
and  obsequious  to  maintain  good  relations  with  the 
four  orders.  Nay,  he  went  to  the  length  of  super¬ 
vising  the  ejection  of  settlers  from  the  lands  the  friars 
claimed,  and  in  at  least  one  instance,  as  we  shall  see, 
accelerated  the  work  with  a  battery  of  artillery. 

It  is  now  reasonably  certain  that  most  of  these 
claims  were  without  merit,  but  unlimited  power  had 
produced  among  the  orders  the  effect  it  has  had  in  all 
ages  and  climes  upon  the  men  that  have  possessed  it. 
Over  a  certain  genus  of  temperament  the  evil  spell 
seems  too  great  to  be  abridged  by  religion  or  by 
anything  else.  Nothing  in  the  so-called  civilizing  ad¬ 
ventures  of  Europe  upon  the  fringes  of  the  earth  has 
been  more  clearly  proved  than  that  the  white  man, 
removed  from  the  restraining  influence  of  home  and 
his  neighbors  and  clothed  with  irresponsible  power 
over  people  whom  he  deems  inferior,  is  capable  of 
reversion  to  an  astonishing  tyranny.  The  records  of 
the  Congo,  of  Dr.  Peters  in  South  Africa,  of  the  Ger¬ 
mans  in  the  South  Seas,  are  easy  illustrations  on  a 
large  scale  of  what  happened  here  in  little. 

It  has  been  the  huge  blunder  of  Europeans  dealing 
with  the  Malay  to  mistake  his  patience  for  weakness 
and  his  silence  for  acquiescence.  Aliens  imposing 
themselves  by  force  upon  a  remote  people  of  another 

1  Fernandez,  “A  Brief  History  of  the  Philippines,  ’ ’  p.  136. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


25 


color  have  seldom  been  at  pains  to  pick  up  the  keys 
to  the  psychology  of  the  governed.  Great  is  the 
misery  that  would  have  been  avoided  for  the  dark- 
skinned  children  of  earth  by  the  use  of  this  simple 
process,  and  nowhere  was  it  simpler  than  in  the 
Philippines. 

All  these  influences  and  causes  were  at  work  to 
make  trouble.  Partly  by  their  own  excesses,  partly 
by  becoming  the  symbols  and  visualized  representatives 
of  the  whole  foreign  domination,  with  all  its  intoler¬ 
able  wrongs  and  oppressions,  the  friars  were  now 
the  objects  of  a  deathless  hatred.  Hardly  were  the 
landlords  of  old  more  abhorred  by  the  Irish  peasantry. 

It  was  a  people  capable  by  nature  of  much  hating 
as  of  much  loving  upon  whom  fell  this  bitter  inher¬ 
itance.  One  can  only  suppose  that  the  average  Span¬ 
iard  in  the  Philippines  stood  sentinel  against  himself 
lest  he  should  understand  the  people  he  thought  were 
under  his  boot-heel.  In  point  of  fact,  they  were  not 
stupid  and  inferior,  as  he  always  described  them,  but 
of  an  excellent  mentality,  quick  apprehension,  reason¬ 
ing  powers  at  least  equal  to  his  own,  of  a  certain  in¬ 
heritance  of  culture,  different,  cruder,  but  in  its  way 
not  less.  Particularly  they  were  a  people  in  whom 
resentment  against  injustice  might  smolder  long  but 
only  in  the  end  to  blaze  into  perilous  fires.  Three 
centuries  of  Spanish  domination  had  not  extirpated 
the  Malayan  instinct  for  liberty,  but,  judging  from 
the  climax  of  all  this,  only  intensified  it.  Spanish 
officers  watching  with  intent  eyes  for  the  least  sign 
of  revolt  took  from  these  people  every  discoverable 
weapon,  even  to  bolos  (knives)  of  blades  longer 


26 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


than  so  many  inches.  The  better  organization, 
discipline,  equipment,  and  military  skill  that  alone 
constituted  Spanish  supremacy  was  for  ever  being 
paraded  in  the  eyes  of  the  Indios.  At  every  turn  they 
were  reminded  in  some  way  of  their  position,  helpless, 
barehanded,  and  kept  from  one  another  by  enmities 
the  Spaniards  knew  well  how  to  foster.  In  the  face 
of  all  this  sedulous  care,  behold  in  the  story  of  their 
possession  of  the  Philippines  a  serial  of  insurrection! 
Between  1573  and  1872,  thirty-one  revolts  had  been 
serious  enough  to  leave  enduring  records  in  history.1 

Going  over  these  records  now,  no  one  can  fail  to 
see  that  the  uprisings  were  progressive ;  however 
lamely  inaugurated,  poorly  armed,  fallaciously  led, 
each  was  of  an  aspect  more  serious  than  its  prede¬ 
cessor.  Any  Spaniard  with  the  least  skill  in  reading 
human  history  could  have  foretold  the  result.  As 
education  spread,  as  mankind  elsewhere  struggled 
more  and  more  into  comparative  liberty,  as  the  sense 
of  injustice  grew  in  the  Filipino  heart,  the  day  would 
come  when  these  people,  too,  would  be  driven  to  unite 
for  the  one  great  all-embracing,  all-inspiring  object 
of  national  freedom  and  national  existence,  and  they 
would  win  it. 

To  this  the  friars  and  the  governing  class  of  the 
Philippines  were  now  contributing  by  providing  the 
immediate  sting  that  seems  always  to  be  needed  when 
an  old  and  deep-lying  resentment  is  to  be  goaded  into 
outward  and  physical  activities.  The  friars  and  the 
governing  class  were  palpable ;  their  acts  of  oppression 

1  The  Philippine  Independence  Mission  of  1922  estimated  the  num¬ 
ber  at  one  hundred,  great  and  small. 


A  PEOPLE’S  WRONGS 


27 


were  daily  before  the  people’s  observation;  but  what 
they  stood  for  as  the  emblems  of  a  general  condition 
was  much  more  important  than  anything  they  did. 
Stories  of  men  with  causes  just  and  righteous  that 
had  been  ruined  at  the  friars’  dictation  in  the  farcical 
courts;  stories  of  men  and  women  persecuted  as  Mrs. 
Mercado  had  been  persecuted;  stories  of  men  beaten 
to  death,  men  strangled  and  men  shot,  men  deported 
and  women  wronged,  were  brooded  over  in  thousands 
of  barrios.1  They  but  completed  the  tale  of  three  hun¬ 
dred  years  of  government  with  the  iron  fist. 

1  Barrio:  hamlet.  Most  Philippine  farmers  live  gregariously. 


CHAPTER  II 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS 

THE  boy  that  so  early  and  by  this  savage  tuition 
came  to  be  initiated  into  his  people’s  sorrows  was 
then  chiefly  remarkable  for  a  gentle,  tractable  dispo¬ 
sition  and  a  liking  for  books  and  study.  He  had  been 
born  at  Calamba,  June  19,  1861.  In  his  earliest  child¬ 
hood  he  seemed  undersized  and  undervitalized;  but 
when  he  was  six  years  old  there  came  to  his  father’s 
house  his  uncle  Manuel,  a  figure  of  health  and  a  reso¬ 
lute  practitioner  of  open-air  sports,  who  took  Jose  in 
hand  and  with  daily  exercises  and  rigorous  living  built 
his  body  to  normal  strength  and  agility.  Filipinos 
have  a  natural  aptitude  for  athletics ;  he  verified  now 
the  ancestral  blood  in  his  veins.  He  ran  and  jumped ; 
he  took  long  walks;  he  learned  to  fence,  to  ride,  and 
to  like  the  sun  and  the  wind. 

By  all  accounts  he  must  have  been  a  singularly  at¬ 
tractive  child,  even  in  a  country  where  handsome  chil¬ 
dren  are  common.  His  color  was  the  fine  tint  of  his 
people,  a  light,  clean,  even  brown ;  his  face  a  delicate 
oval,  but  the  chin  firm  and  rather  long;  the  forehead 
nobly  shaped,  the  nose  almost  classical,  the  lips  full 
but  nothing  sensual.  His  eyes  had  a  hardly  discern¬ 
ible  slant;  when  he  was  animated  they  flashed  out  of 
black  depths  a  kind  of  black  fire;  but  when  he  was 

quiescent  they  seemed  gravely  introspective.  Long 

28 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  29 


afterward  his  neighbors  and  relatives,  trying  to  recall 
his  boyhood,  and  perhaps  overstraining  memory, 
thought  he  seemed  always  much  older  than  his  years, 
a  notion  that  may  have  arisen  from  his  unusual  habits. 
He  liked  to  read  or  be  read  to ;  he  liked  at  times  to  be 
alone;  he  liked  to  hear  his  elders  argue;  he  liked  to 
go  to  church  to  see  the  people  there ;  and  he  liked  to 
reason. 

Jose  Protasio  Rizal  Mercado  y  Alonzo  Realonda  was 
his  full  name,  made  up  in  the  Spanish  fashion  from 
both  sides  of  his  house,  paternal  as  far  as  the  con¬ 
necting  “y,”  and  maternal  the  rest  of  the  road. 
Philippine  names  seem  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  a 
riddle  that  adds  unnecessarily  to  the  burdens  of  life. 
This  boy  was  to  be  known  all  his  life  as  Jose  Rizal; 
his  father  had  been  and  was  always  thereafter  known 
as  Francisco  Mercado,  his  mother  as  Doha  Teodora 
Alonzo.  Francisco,  the  father,  and  all  Francisco’s 
younger  brothers  in  a  family  of  twelve  called  them¬ 
selves  Rizal  as  much  as  Mercado  and  the  rest ; 
none  of  his  older  brothers  used  Rizal;  all  of  his 
children  bore  it  as  their  family  name.  Yet  family 
name  it  was  never,  according  to  western  standards; 
for  it  was  added  in  1849  by  virtue  of  a  proclamation 
of  the  governor-general  and  by  the  whim  of  the  man 
then  head  of  the  house.  A  strange  difficulty  had  arisen 
in  the  Philippines.  The  original  Tagalog  (or  other 
native)  surnames  being  invincible  against  the  Spanish 
tongue,  Spanish  names  were  used  as  substitutes,  hut 
not,  one  might  think,  with  sufficient  variety.  Religious 
fervor  overworked  the  popularity  of  some  of  these 
until  there  arose  an  inextricable  confusion:  seventeen 


30 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Antonio  de  la  Cruzes  in  one  town,  all  unrelated ;  twelve 
Francisco  de  los  Santoses  in  a  single  street.  This  knot 
the  wise  old  Governor-General  Claveria 1  cut  with 
ready  sword.  He  provided  a  list  of  Spanish  names, 
apparently  copied  in  alphabetical  order  from  the 
Madrid  directory,  and  required  the  head  of  each  family 
to  take  one  of  these,  add  it  at  the  rear  or  front  of 
whatever  other  names  he  was  then  carrying,  and  hand 
it  down  to  his  children.2  The  father  of  Francisco 
Mercado  met  the  spirit  of  the  decree  but  evaded  its 
letter.  He  chose  for  his  official  name  of  names  Rizal, 
which  was  not  on  the  governor-generaPs  list,  but 
passed  muster.  It  is  a  corruption  of  the  Spanish  word 
ricial,  and  means  a  green  field  or  pasture ;  being  here 
a  poetic  recognition,  maybe,  of  the  blessed  state  of 
Mercado’s  own  rentals. 

In  the  long  and  many  syllabled  cognomen,  sounding 
like  a  verse  of  the  HDneid,  with  which  Jose  was  bap¬ 
tized,  is  to  be  noticed  the  name  Realonda.  This  was 
from  his  mother’s  family,  where  it  also  was  an  inno¬ 
vation  of  the  ingenious  Claveria.  Her  family  had 
long  been  known  as  Alonzo.3 

Those  that  like  to  go  over  the  first  records  of  great 
men  in  search  of  phenomena  foreshadowing  something 
unusual  in  after-life  will  never  be  disappointed  here. 
Jose  mastered  his  alphabet  when  he  was  three  years 
old,  and  before  he  was  five  could  read  in  a  Spanish 
version  of  the  Vulgate  from  which  his  mother  had 

1  From  1844  to  1850.  He  was  one  of  the  reforming  governor -generals 
and  left  a  name  more  revered  than  the  others. 

2  Retana,  pp.  14-15. 

3  Craig,  pp.  61,  63. 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  31 


taught  him  at  her  knee.1  In  other  ways  his  debt  to 
her  was  unusual;  she  turned  his  mind  in  his  earliest 
years  toward  good  literature,  in  which  she  had  a  dis¬ 
cerning  taste,  being  for  her  times  and  environment  of 
rare  learning  and  college  bred  in  Manila.2  With  other 
accomplishments  she  knew  and  loved  good  poetry, 
could  make  it  herself,  and  early  taught  Jose  to  make  it. 
He  grew  up  thus  with  the  advantage  of  a  bilingual 
background.  About  him  the  common  speech  was  Taga- 
log ;  his  mother  made  Spanish  fairly  familiar  to  his  ear. 

Once  she  read  to  him  a  moral  tale,  “The  Moth  and 
the  Candle,”  translating  as  she  went  along,  and  em¬ 
phasizing  the  lesson.  The  moth  had  been  told  by  its 
mother  to  keep  away  from  the  flame,  and  now  see  what 
happened.  A  cocoanut-oil  lamp  was  burning  on  the 
table  as  she  read;  winged  insects  were  flying  about 
and  losing  their  lives  in  the  blaze.  Jose  became  much 
more  interested  in  them  than  in  the  salutary  warnings 
of  his  mother.  He  said  afterward  that  he  was  not 
so  much  sorry  for  the  insects  that  lost  their  lives  as 
fascinated  by  their  fate. 

The  advice  and  warnings  sounded  feebly  in  my  ears  [he 
wrote].  What  I  thought  of  most  was  the  death  of  the  heed¬ 
less  moth.  But  in  the  depths  of  my  heart  I  did  not  blame  it. 
My  mother’s  care  had  not  quite  the  result  she  intended. 

Years  have  passed  since  then.  The  child  has  become  a 
man.  He  has  crossed  the  most  famous  rivers  of  other  coun¬ 
tries.  He  has  studied  beside  their  broad  streams.  Steam¬ 
ships  have  carried  him  across  seas  and  oceans.  He  has 

1  Derbyshire. 

3  College  of  Santa  Rosa. 


32 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


climbed  mountains  much  higher  than  the  Makiling  of  his 
native  province,  up  to  perpetual  snow.  He  has  received 
from  experience  bitter  lessons,  much  more  bitter  than  that 
sweet  teaching  which  his  mother  gave  him.  Yet,  in  spite  of 
all,  the  man  still  keeps  the  heart  of  a  child.  He  still  thinks 
that  light  is  the  most  beautiful  thing  in  creation,  and  that 
it  is  worth  a  man’s  sacrificing  his  life  for.1 

He  had  the  soul  of  an  artist,  you  may  perceive,  and 
the  artist’s  irresistible  yearning  for  expression. 
Before  he  was  five  years  old,  and  without  tutelage  or 
suggestion,  he  began  to  draw  with  pencil  and  to  model 
in  clay  and  wax.  It  was  form  that  most  took  his 
attention;  to  model  images  of  birds,  butterflies,  dogs, 
and  men,  to  draw  faces  and  to  outline  designs.2  For 
such  studies  his  surroundings  could  hardly  have  been 
better;  as  soon  as  his  bent  was  shown  father,  mother, 
and  uncles  gave  him  every  encouragement;  this  is  a 
race  that  upon  any  manifestation  of  artistic  promise 
looks  with  a  kind  of  solemn  joy.  Uncle  Jose  Alberto, 
his  mother’s  half-brother,  had  been  a  school-teacher 
as  well  as  a  student  abroad;  Uncle  Gregorio  was  a 
great  reader ;  the  atmosphere  of  the  house  was  friendly 
to  study.  After  the  Philippine  manner  it  was  grave, 
decorous,  reserved ;  for  there  is  not  on  earth,  one  may 
believe,  a  people  by  nature  more  serious-minded.  The 
family  was  happy  to  have  the  benignant  friendship  of 
Father  Lopez,  the  parish  priest,  a  fair  antithesis  of 
the  typical  friar  of  those  days  and  a  noble  inheritor 
of  the  purest  spirit  of  the  first  missions.  Father  Lopez 

1  Rizal  ’s  1 1  Boyhood  Story,  ”  “  The  First  Reading  Lesson.  ’  ’ 

2  Craig,  p.  78. 


The  House  at  Calamba  in  which  Rizal  was  born 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  33 


was  beloved  of  all  the  children  of  the  parish.  They  had 
sound  reason  for  their  affection;  there  was  no  kinder 
or  more  useful  man.  The  friendship  he  maintained 
with  Jose  seemed  more  like  a  page  out  of  Charles 
Dickens  than  the  barren  realities  of  ordinary  child 
life  in  the  Philippines,  and  the  priest  to  have  stepped 
from  some  new  and  Spanish  version  of  “  Christmas 
Stories.”  The  boy  was  to  learn  by  painful  experience 
how  different  from  certain  others  of  the  cloth  was  the 
gentle  old  curate  of  Calamba. 

Years  afterward,  when  he  was  entering  upon  man’s 
estate,  he  was  induced  to  write  what  he  called  the  story 
of  his  boyhood.  It  proved  to  be  a  juiceless  sketch  of 
a  few  pages  covering  many  years.  He  was  not  enough 
egotist  to  make  a  good  autobiographer.  He  begins  by 
saying  he  was  born  a  few  days  before  the  full  of  the 
moon.  Then  he  adds : 

I  had  some  slight  notions  of  the  morning  sun  and  of  my 
parents.  That  is  as  much  as  I  can  recall  of  my  baby  days. 

The  training  I  received  from  my  earliest  infancy  is  per¬ 
haps  what  formed  my  habits,  just  as  a  cask  keeps  the  odor 
of  its  first  contents.  I  recall  clearly  my  first  gloomy  nights, 
passed  on  the  azotea 1  of  our  house.  They  seem  as  yester¬ 
day  !  They  were  nights  filled  with  the  poetry  of  sadness 
and  seem  near  now  because  at  present  my  days  are  so  sad. 

On  moonlight  nights,  I  took  my  supper  on  the  azotea. 
My  nurse,  who  was  very  fond  of  me,  used  to  threaten  to 
leave  me  to  a  terrible  but  imaginary  being  like  the  bogy 
of  the  Europeans  if  I  did  not  eat. 

1  Azotea:  the  roof  of  the  porch  of  a  Philippine  house,  usually  at  the 
rear. 


34 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


He  had  nine  sisters  and  one  brother.  Of  his  father 
he  says  that  he  was  a  model  parent.1  “He  gave  us  the 
education  that  was  suitable  to  a  family  neither  rich 
nor  poor.  Through  careful  economy,  he  had  been  able 
to  build  a  stone  house.” 

At  nightfall,  my  mother  had  us  all  say)  our  prayers 
together.  Then  we  would  go  to  the  aeatea,  or  to  a  window 
from  which  we  could  see  the  moon.  There  my  nurse  would 
tell  us  stories.  Sometimes  sad  and  sometimes  gay,  they 
were  always  oriental  in  their  imagination.  Dead  people, 
gold  and  plants  on  which  diamonds  grew  were  all  mixed 
together. 

When  I  was  four  years  of  age,  I  lost  my  little  sister, 
Concha,  and  for  the  first  time  my  tears  fell  because  of  love 
and  sorrow.  Till  then  I  had  shed  them  only  for  my  own 
faults.  These  my  loving,  prudent  mother  well  knew  how 
to  correct. 

The  environment  would  seem  nevertheless  to  be 
more  propitious  for  the  breeding  of  an  agitator  than 
of  either  a  moralist  or  an  artist.  “Almost  every  day 
in  our  town,”  he  says,  “we  saw  the  Guar  did  Civil 
lieutenant  caning  or  injuring  some  unarmed  and  inof¬ 
fensive  villager.  The  only  fault  would  be  that  while 
at  a  distance  he  had  not  taken  off  his  hat  and  made  his 
bow.  The  alcalde  did  the  same  thing  whenever  he 
visited  us.” 

We  saw  no  restraint  put  upon  brutality.  Those  whose 
duty  it  was  to  look  out  for  the  public  peace  committed  acts 
of  violence  and  other  excesses.  They  were  the  real  outlaws, 

1His  “Boyhood  Story/ *  p.  4. 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  35 


and  against  such  lawbreakers  our  authorities  were  power¬ 
less. 

His  father  looked  carefully  to  the  beginnings  of 
Jose’s  education.  There  was  daily  drilling  in  all  the 
elementary  studies ;  an  old  man  came  and  lived  in  the 
house  to  teach  the  boy  Latin. 

When  he  was  nine  years  old  he  was  sent  to  the 
boys’  school  at  Binan,  where  his  uncle  Jose  Alberto 
lived,  and  where  he  acquired  knowledge  in  the  tradi¬ 
tional  manner  and  under  a  liberal  application  of  the 
rod.  Dr.  Justiniano  Cruz,  his  teacher,  seems  to  have 
had  no  modern  illusions  about  the  sparing  of  this 
implement ;  to  have  it  hang  by  the  side  of  the  Bible  and 
be  more  frequently  used  was  his  notion  of  thorough 
instruction. 

Jose  wrote  of  his  experiences  there : 

My  brother  left  me  after  he  had  presented  me  to  the 
schoolmaster,  who,  it  seemed,  had  been  his  own  teacher. 
He  was  a  tall,  thin  man,  with  a  long  neck  and  a  sharp  nose. 
His  body  leaned  slightly  forward.  His  shirt  was  of 
sinmnmj,1  woven  by  the  deft  fingers  of  Batangas  women. 
He  knew  Latin  and  Spanish  grammar  by  heart.  And  his 
severity,  I  believe  now,  was  too  great.  This  is  all  I  can 
remember  of  him.  His  class-room  was  in  his  own  house 
and  only  some  thirty  meters  away  from  my  aunt’s  house 
[where  Jose  was  lodged]. 

When  I  entered  the  class-room  for  the  first  time,  he  said 
to  me: 

“You,  do  you  speak  Spanish?” 

“A  little,  sir,”  I  answered. 

1  Sinamay :  a  native  cloth  woven  of  abaca  (hemp)  and  sometimes  of 
the  fiber  that  is  called  ‘ 1  pineapple. 1  ’ 


36 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


“Do  you  know  Latin?’’ 

“A  little,  sir,”  I  again  answered. 

Because  of  these  answers,  the  teacher’s  son,  who  was  the 
worst  boy  in  the  class,  began  to  make  fun  of  me.  He  was 
some  years  my  elder  and  had  an  advantage  in  height,  yet 
we  had  a  tussle.  Somehow  or  other,  I  don’t  know  how,  I 
got  the  better  of  him.  I  bent  him  down  over  the  class 
benches.  Then  I  let  him  loose,  having  hurt  only  his  pride. 

From  this  feat,  the  other  boys  thought  he  was  a 
clever  wrestler.  One  of  them  challenged  him.  His 
pride  had  an  early  fall.  The  challenger  threw  him 
and  came  near  to  break  his  head  on  the  sidewalk. 

I  do  not  wish  to  take  up  the  time  with  telling  of  the 
beatings  I  got,  nor  shall  I  attempt  to  say  how  it  hurt  when 
I  received  the  first  ruler-blow  on  my  hand.  I  used  to  win 
in  the  competitions,  for  no  one  happened  to  be  better  than 
I.  Of  these  successes  I  made  the  most.  In  spite  of  the 
reputation  I  had  of  being  a  good  boy,  rare  were  the  days 
in  which  my  teacher  did  not  call  me  up  to  receive  five  or 
six  blows  on  the  hand. 

There  was  near-by  an  aged  painter.  Jose  used  to 
haunt  his  studio  and  learned  much  there  about  the 
secrets  of  pictorial  art.  He  continues : 

My  manner  of  life  was  simple.  I  heard  mass  at  four  if 
there  was  a  service  so  early,  or  studied  my  lesson  at  that 
hour  and  went  to  mass  afterward.  Then  I  went  into  the 
yard  and  looked  for  mabolos.1  Then  came  breakfast,  which 
generally  consisted  of  a  plate  of  rice  and  two  dried  sar- 

1Mabolo:  the  date-plum,  a  reddish  fruit,  looking  something  like  an 
apple,  but  turnip-shaped. 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  37 


dines.  There  was  class-work  till  ten  o’clock,  and  after 
luncheon  a  study  period.  In  the  afternoon  there  was  school 
from  two  o’clock  until  five.  Next,  there  would  be  play  with 
my  cousins  for  a  while.  Study  and  perhaps  painting  took 
up  the  remainder  of  the  afternoon.  By  and  by  came  sup¬ 
per,  one  or  two  plates  of  rice  with  a  fish  called  ayungin. 
In  the  evening  we  had  prayers  and  then,  if  there  was  moon¬ 
light,  a  cousin  and  I  would  play  in  the  street  with  the 
others.  Fortunately,  I  was  never  ill  while  away  from 
home.  From  time  to  time,  I  went  to  my  own  village.  How 
long  the  trip  seemed  going  and  how  short  coming  back! 

The  tenderer  plants  of  knowledge  would  hardly  be 
expected  to  flower  in  this  harsh  air,  but  the  boy 
acquitted  himself  well.  In  two  years  he  had  gathered 
into  his  little  head  all  the  wisdom  Dr.  Cruz  could 
supply,  even  with  the  conscientious  use  of  the  birch, 
and  his  parents  had  decided  to  send  him  to  Manila 
and  the  famous  Ateneo  Municipal  of  the  Jesuits.1 

In  Manila,  though  not  at  the  Ateneo,  he  had  been 
preceded  by  his  elder  brother  Paciano,  long  a  student 
at  the  College  of  San  Jose,  where  that  Father  Burgos, 
whose  death  at  the  hands  of  the  terrified  governing 
class  in  1872  we  have  recounted,  was  an  instructor. 
Paciano  lived  at  Father  Burgos’s  house  and  was  his 
intimate  friend.  What  ideas  and  ideals  dominated 
the  Mercado  household  at  Calamba  we  may  surmise 
from  incidents  of  Paciano ’s  own  school  life.  He  was 
pilloried  at  San  Jose  as  a  notorious  patriot;  because 

1  The  Jesuits  were  not  one  of  the  four  orders  that  figure  so  conspicu¬ 
ously  in  this  story.  They  had  been  banished  from  the  Philippines  as 
from  Spain  in  1767,  and  all  their  insular  property,  valued  at  3,320,000 
pesos,  was  confiscated  by  the  Government.  In  1852  another  royal  de¬ 
cree  allowed  them  to  return,  but  they  never  regained  their  former 
prominence  and  power. 


38 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


he  spoke  with  some  freedom  against  the  tyranny  that 
blasted  his  country  the  authorities  refused  to  allow 
him  to  pass  his  examinations.1  It  appears  that  Father 
Burgos,  although  unjustly  accused  of  complicity  in  the 
Cavite  affair,  was  likewise  a  sturdy  Filipino  and  con¬ 
vinced  that  the  iniquities  of  the  existing  System  could 
not  long  be  maintained.  In  all  probability  he  was 
sentenced  for  holding  these  views.  No  one  will  ever 
know  this,  because  the  trial  was  in  secret,  no  testimony 
(if  any  was  taken)  was  afterward  to  be  found,  and  he 
that  was  called  the  witness  for  the  Government  was 
garroted  by  that  same  Government  before  the  public 
could  learn  the  nature  of  his  inventions.2  A  belief  that 
Father  Burgos  was  a  general-principles  victim  is  justi¬ 
fied  by  the  habitual  proceedings  of  the  Government. 
He  was  not  the  only  man  that  perished  in  those  days 
for  what  he  thought  and  not  for  what  he  did. 

The  slayings  of  Fathers  Gomez,  Burgos,  and  Zamora 
took  place  a  few  months  before  Jose  Rizal  went  to 
Manila.  Almost  before  Paciano ’s  face  his  friend  and 
teacher  had  been  dragged  to  death.  What  communi¬ 
cation  about  these  things  Paciano  made  to  his  brother, 
or  how  Paciano  was  moved  by  the  tragedy,  we  can 
gather  only  from  what  happened  afterward ;  but  what 
it  meant  to  Jose  we  know  well,  for  as  to  that  he  has 
left  eloquent  testimony.  Sixteen  years  afterward  he 
compressed  into  twenty-two  lines  of  bitter  irony  the 
scorn  he  had  of  Spain  for  that  day’s  work.  The  trag¬ 
edy  on  Bagumbayan  Field  came  at  the  time  when  his 
mother’s  persecution  was  beginning;  his  departure 

1  Craig,  p.  82. 

2  Craig,  p.  83:  Derbyshire,  p.  xvi;  Fernandez,  p.  226. 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  39 


from  home  had  been  delayed  by  her  arrest.  He  was 
already  burning  under  the  sense  of  an  intolerable 
wrong;  this  sharp  and  gratuitous  access  of  injustice 
must  have  pierced  him  with  another  wound  to  brood 
over.1  All  the  rest  of  his  life  he  seemed  a  lonely  and 
rather  melancholy  figure.  It  was  here  at  the  Ateneo 
that  his  aloofness  began.  A  feeling  grew  upon  him 
that  he  was  alone  in  the  midst  of  crowds.  It  was  the 
counterpart  of  a  sense  equally  developing  in  him  that 
the  misfortunes  of  his  people  were  to  be  the  business 
of  his  life. 

He  found  much  at  the  Ateneo  that  sharpened  his 
observations  of  the  source  of  the  national  disease.  All 
things  considered,  the  school  professed  unusual  vir¬ 
tues;  its  wise  conductors  made  something  of  a  vaunt 
of  equal  treatment  for  all  their  pupils.  Yet  even  so 
it  was  impossible  to  shut  out  or  to  mitigate  the  con¬ 
tempt  and  hatred  the  Spaniards  had  for  the  Filipinos. 
Before  the  faculty,  Spanish  boys  and  Filipino  boys 
might  have  an  equal  chance  to  pass  their  examina¬ 
tions;  outside  of  the  class-rooms,  the  Spanish  boys 
sedulously  imitated  the  arrogance  and  brutalities  of 
their  elders.  One  of  the  first  remarks  made  by  Jose 
Rizal  in  his  new  academe  was  that  the  Spanish  boys 
always  bore  themselves  with  aggressive  insolence  to¬ 
ward  their  schoolmates  of  darker  skin;  the  “miserable 
Indio”  attitude  over  again.  The  next  was  that  while 
the  Filipino  boys  seemed  as  a  rule  to  accept  a  situa¬ 
tion  they  were  powerless  to  end,  they  were  one  and  all 
insubmissive  in  their  hearts.  Next  he  made  note  that 
the  Filipino  boys  were  so  little  impressed  with  Spanish 

1  Betana,  pp.  18,  19. 


40 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


superiority  that  in  secret  they  laughed  at  their  white 
tyrants,  mocking  them  and  well  aware  of  their  faults 
and  weaknesses.  Finally,  he  satisfied  himself  many 
times  in  many  ways,  that  the  Filipino  mind  was  not  in 
any  respect  inferior  to  the  Spanish;  for  the  pretense 
of  Spanish  superiority  there  was  no  other  basis  but 
the  accident  of  the  overawing  military. 

In  cannon  and  not  in  mind,  spirit,  or  genius  lay  all 
of  Spain’s  prestige. 

Before  this  discovery  all  the  theory  upon  which 
Europe  dominated  any  part  of  the  Orient  crumbled 
and  vanished.  There  was  no  such  thing,  it  did  not 
exist,  it  was  only  fabrication  and  device.  The  brown 
man  was  not  inferior;  he  was  not  deliberately  shaped 
by  the  Creator  to  be  the  white  man’s  patient  drudge. 
Put  down  side  by  side  with  an  equal  course  before 
them,  footing  the  same  starting-line,  the  brown  boy 
in  school  won  to  the  goal  as  quickly  and  surely  as  the 
white.  And  only  as  quickly  and  surely?  It  seemed 
to  Rizal,  after  a  time,  taking  careful  note,  that  the 
brown  boy  was  in  every  trial  heat  the  nimbler  and 
wiser.1  As,  for  example,  here  was  all  the  instruction 
in  this  school  given  in  Spanish,  the  white  boy’s  native 
tongue,  but  all  alien  to  the  brown  boy.  So,  then,  the 
brown  boy  must  needs  compass  the  language  in  which 
the  instruction  was  conveyed  as  well  as  the  instruction 
given  therein.  Yet,  even  so,  handicapped  by  this  and 
no  less  by  universal  contempt  and  disparagement,  be¬ 
hold  him  winning  at  least  as  many  prizes  as  the 
Spaniard,  at  least  as  proficient,  diligent,  capable. 

Here  was  a  revelation  to  shake  the  towers  of  ac- 

1  See  Dr.  Blumentritt ’s  article,  Appendix  D. 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  41 


cepted  doctrine.  In  the  light  of  it  how  great  (and  how 
hideous!)  was  the  wrong  done  to  the  people  of  the 
Philippines!  The  pretense  upon  which  Spain  ruled 
in  this  iron  fashion,  with  so  much  cruelty  and  dis¬ 
honesty,  was  (in  effect)  that  in  the  cells  of  the  brains 
and  in  the  corpuscles  of  the  blood  of  these  people  some 
undefined  and  mysterious  essence  was  lacking,  and  for 
want  of  this  they  were  incapable  of  ruling  themselves 
or  even  of  taking  a  place  among  the  other  children  of 
earth.  Being  put  to  the  test,  no  such  lack  appeared, 
but  only  aptitude,  mental  health,  mental  vigor,  equal 
at  least  to  those  of  the  white  man.  The  European 
ruled,  then,  because  he  had  a  larger  share  of  the  brute 
in  him,  because  he  had  a  sensual  ambition  to  rule,  be¬ 
cause  his  taste  found  pleasure  in  humiliating  and 
exploiting  others,  because  he  had  a  tougher  conscience, 
and  because  luck  had  been  on  his  side.  Of  any  essen¬ 
tial,  irradicable,  structural  difference  between  race 
and  race  there  was  not  an  indication.  What  the 
Asiatic  really  lacked  was  opportunity,  not  intellect; 
and  liberty,  not  character. 

He  came  to  these  conclusions  without  haste,  because 
his  was  a  mind  that  worked  deliberately  and  over 
stretched-out  periods  of  observation.  He  has  left 
a  record  of  them:  of  the  time  when  they  caused  him 
to  believe  that  the  Malayan  mind  must  really  be  better 
than  the  Caucasian;  of  his  final  conviction  that  be¬ 
tween  mind  and  mind  there  is  no  racial  distinction  with 
which  reasoning  men  will  bother  themselves;  that  all 
the  children  of  mother  earth  under  the  same  condi¬ 
tions  will  average  about  the  same  results.  In  the  end 
he  came  to  discard  the  whole  theory  of  races;  to  his 


42 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


mind  it  was  nothing  but  the  manufacture  of  prejudice, 
ignorance,  or  profit-mongering.  Mankind  he  saw  not 
separated  by  perpendicular  lines  into  races  but  by 
horizontal  lines  into  strata.1  Everywhere  some  groups 
of  men,  favored  by  conditions,  by  liberty  first  of  all, 
by  institutions,  by  opportunity,  had  climbed  to  higher 
strata;  everywhere  other  groups  of  men  less  fortunate 
as  to  conditions,  having  less  liberty,  worse  institutions, 
and  narrower  opportunity,  remained  still  in  the  lower 
strata.  But  everywhere  it  was,  first  of  all,  conditions 
that  determined  whether  men  should  climb  or  remain, 
and  not  blood  nor  the  color  of  skin  nor  the  texture 
of  hair. 

It  appears  that  he  would  make  full  allowance  for 
individuals  of  unusual  gifts,  for  the  Shakespeares  and 
Hugos,  Goethes  and  Voltaires.  What  he  was  consid¬ 
ering  was  men  in  the  mass,  not  individuals.  If  we  may 
judge  from  his  writings  and  the  testimony  of  his 
friends  he  was  singularly  free  from  vanity;  certainly 
from  the  little  vanities  of  self-seekers.  He  could 
hardly  have  failed  to  perceive  even  then  that  he  him¬ 
self  was  of  the  order  of  the  exceptional;  at  the  same 
time  he  saw  plainly  enough  that  his  own  attainments 
were  won  by  hard  and  systematic  toil  rather  than  the 
rare  blessings  of  the  gods  dropped  into  his  lap.  Still 
looking  upon  men  in  the  mass,  he  saw  that  to  assign 
special  qualities  as  special  inheritances  out  of  the 
reach  of  other  complexions  was  wrong  in  science  and 
foolish  in  practice.  One  race  could  not  possibly  inherit 
the  right  to  rule  another;  one  race  could  not  possibly 

1  Dr.  Blumentritt ;  see  Appendix  D, 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  43 


be  dearer  than  another  to  the  Omnipotence  that  he 
believed  had  created  all. 

Equality,  then,  was  not  a  dream  of  enthusiasts,  like 
those  of  France ;  equality  was  the  scientific  fact.  Lib¬ 
erty  was  not  a  rare  chrism  with  which  were  touched 
the  lips  of  a  few  peoples  set  apart  by  their  complexions 
for  this  distinction;  liberty  was  the  indefeasible  right 
of  all. 

Manila,  Philippine  Islands,  year  1876 — this  was.  He 
found  nothing  in  the  text-books  put  into  his  hands 
then  that  bred  any  of  these  ideas ;  above  all,  there  was 
nothing  of  the  kind  in  the  tuition  he  was  receiving. 
When  he  was  a  student  at  the  Ateneo  and  later  at  the 
University  of  Santo  Tomas,  the  trend  of  thought  there 
and  elsewhere  ran  all  the  other  way.  By  his  own 
mental  processes  he  had  worked  out,  when  he  was 
hardly  more  than  a  boy,  the  theory  to  which  gray- 
beard  science  was  to  come  a  few  years  later.  What 
he  felt  then  the  best  schools  teach  now ;  a  fact  that  if 
there  were  nothing  else  would  establish  his  precocity. 
But  we  are  to  remember  that  he  had  formed  early  a 
habit  of  independent  thinking  and  had  been  stimulated 
to  form  it.  This  accounts  for  much.  Walls  of  conven¬ 
tion  that  shut  in  upon  and  crushed  the  intellectual 
machinery  of  so  many  other  youths  (there  and  else¬ 
where)  had  no  terrors  for  him;  despite  all  weight  of 
eminent  authority  he  would  at  all  times  and  on  all 
subjects  think  for  himself.  To  be  thus  erect  intel¬ 
lectually  in  a  university,  even  of  these  days  and  in 
these  nations  of  ours  abreast  with  the  front  line  of 
human  advance,  is  still  not  so  easy  that  we  fail  to  mark 


44 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


it  if  ever  we  find  it.  In  his  day,  in  his  nation,  then 
intellectually  dragged  along  at  the  moldering  chariot- 
wheels  of  antique  formality,  behold  a  marvel  and  no 
less. 

This  habitual  attitude  of  mind  was  a  great  asset 
in  his  make-up — the  complete  intellectual  emancipa¬ 
tion  of  the  querist  that  will  take  nothing  for  granted, 
but  without  bias  or  passion  will  investigate,  consider, 
weigh,  seek,  and  decide.  Being  without  feeling,  it  was 
curiously  counterpoised  against  another  asset  that 
was  all  feeling,  deep  and  real.  His  mind  might  climb 
into  abstraction’s  chilly  heights;  his  heart  would  be 
hot  for  Filipinas.  He  was  an  example  of  that  enlight¬ 
ened  patriotism  that  has  redeemed  the  word  from  its 
cheap  and  reactionary  definitions.  It  was  no  mere 
instinct  of  attachment  to  the  walls  wherein  he  was 
born  that  moved  him,  the  instinct  that  causes  goats 
to  come  home  and  cows  to  low  when  they  are  sold. 
He  saw  a  people  of  whom  he  was  a  member  bowed 
under  monstrous  injustice,  denied  the  birthright  of 
opportunity,  slandered  by  oppressors,  and  contemned 
by  a  world  that  took  these  slanderous  inventions  for 
a  true  coinage.  In  a  soul  that  worshiped  justice  and 
loved  equity,  he  revolted  against  these  abominations, 
as  it  was  certain  he  would  have  revolted  against  the 
same  wrongs  practised  against  another  people. 

Not  in  the  same  degree;  for  at  home  the  brand  had 
been  thrust  deep  into  him.  He  might  not  even  have 
come,  so  far  in  advance  of  his  time,  upon  the  modern 
theory  of  races  if  he  had  not  started  with  a  sense  of 
resentment  against  the  suffering  of  his  own.  But 
when  he  had  satisfied  himself  of  the  truth  of  his  theory, 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  45 


he  naturally  applied  it  to  his  own  people  and  felt  more 
than  ever  the  yoke  that  galled  and  hobbled  them.  If 
the  Filipino  was  not  in  fact  made  of  different  stuff 
from  the  marl  that  made  up  the  white  man ;  if  he  was 
held  in  subjection  not  because  he  was  inferior  in 
capacity  but  because  he  was  shouldered  out  of  his  due 
share  of  the  world’s  light  and  hope,  again  how  much 
more  terrible  was  his  plight !  An  aspiring  soul,  as  fine 
and  sure  as  any  other,  held  as  a  brother  to  the  ox, 
Rizal  began  to  perceive  even  in  those  early  days  that 
the  Filipinos  were  like  a  river  that  some  great  arbi¬ 
trary  force  had  closed  in  and  dammed  back.  He  could 
see  the  water  rising  and  hear  it  struggling,  and  knew 
that  some  time  it  would  break  through  the  barriers 
and  run  its  due  course.  To  his  thinking,  the  real 
powers  of  his  people  were  latent,  but  of  a  kind  the 
world  would  have  to  admit  when  these  powers  should 
be  set  free.  And  what  should  set  them  free? 

Education  and  political  liberty. 

It  has  become  a  habit  among  some  writers  and 
speakers  to  look  upon  Rizal  as  a  kind  of  superman,  a 
creature  of  abnormal  gifts,  a  brilliant  exception  to 
the  common  endowment  of  the  Filipino.  Some  have 
described  him  as  a  bright,  strange  meteor  flashing 
against  a  background  of  Malayan  incapacity.1  As  this 
narrative  of  a  wonderful  fife  unfolds  it  will  probably 
show  that  the  man  thus  pedestaled  was  only  human 
and  that  the  secret  of  his  great  works,  enduring  influ¬ 
ence  and  pre-eminence  in  so  many  walks  was  nothing 
mysterious  but  plainly  understandable.  He  had  a  two- 

1  “  Blackwood ’s,  ’ ’  November,  1902,  p.  620. 


46 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


fold  inspiration.  First,  he  developed  a  habit  of  cease¬ 
less  industry,  carefully  ordered,  carefully  followed. 
Second,  and  even  better  than  this,  from  his  youth  he 
had  been  overmastered,  fired  and  whirled  along  by  a 
vision  of  his  people  redeemed.  So  then  to  their  re¬ 
demption  he  consecrated  his  life.  He  did  it  in  his 
closet,  quietly,  without  theatrics  and  without  telling 
anybody.  Macaulay’s  theory  that  every  great  man 
has  something  of  the  charlatan  in  him  falls  short  in 
this  instance.  For  him  the  grand  stand  never  existed. 
Whatever  he  did  was  dedicated  first  in  his  heart  to 
Filipinas;  whatever  he  thought,  planned,  dreamed,  or 
hoped  for  had  some  reference  to  her  and  her  service, 
and  now  when  he  studied  it  was  to  fit  himself  to  serve 
her  better. 

We  come  back  to  him,  knocking  at  the  gate  of 
Ateneo,  eleven  years  old,  small  for  his  age,  and  all  a 
boy  still;  for  we  have  shot  far  ahead  of  that  day  to 
deal  with  the  development  of  the  ideas  of  which  he 
was  slowly  possessed.  It  was  not  with  a  head  full  of 
philosophy  that  he  made  his  application  to  the  famous 
school,  but,  as  he  tells  us  in  his  short  notes  on  his  fife, 
a  heart  full  of  misgivings.  The  day  was  June  10, 
1872,  and  he  was  to  take  his  entrance  examinations  at 
the  College  of  San  Juan  de  Letran,  Manila.  Christian 
doctrine,  arithmetic,  and  reading  were  the  branches  of 
human  erudition  required  of  youth  that  sought  to  enter 
those  doors.  It  is  to  be  supposed  that  Jose  could  have 
passed  them  with  his  eyes  shut.  He  received  the  re¬ 
quired  mark  and  spent  the  next  few  days  at  home. 
When  he  returned  to  Manila  to  begin  his  studies  at  the 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  47 


Ateneo,  “even  then,”  he  says,  “I  felt  that  unhappiness 
was  in  store  for  me.”  1 

For  all  his  good  passing-mark,  he  came  near  to  miss 
the  opening  he  sought.  Father  Fernando,  the  Jesuit 
priest  then  in  charge  of  the  Ateneo,  looked  upon  him 
without  favor.  He  had  come  late  in  the  term,  for  one 
thing;  and  then  he  was  so  small  and  slight.  Only  at 
the  intercession  of  Dr.  Manuel  Burgos,  a  nephew  of 
the  priest  officially  murdered  on  Bagumbayan  Field, 
the  rules  were  relaxed  and  the  midget  from  Calamba 
allowed  to  come  in.  For  the  moment  he  forgot  his 
forebodings.  With  joy  he  put  on  the  school  uniform, 
the  white  coat  called  an  americana,  the  necktie,  and 
the  rest.  When  he  found  himself  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Jesuit  fathers  to  hear  mass,  surrounded  with  strange 
faces,  a  new  boy  in  a  new  school,  he  prayed  fervently. 
Then  he  says  he  went  to  the  class-room  and  appraised 
his  teachers  and  school-fellows,  on  whom  he  seems  to 
have  looked  with  preternaturally  keen  eyes. 

Father  Jose  Bech  was  a  tall  man,  thin  and  somewhat 
stooping,  but  quick  in  his  movements.  His  face  was 
ascetic,  yet  animated.  The  eyes  were  small  and  sunken,  the 
nose  sharp  and  Grecian.  His  thin  lips  curved  downward. 
He  was  a  little  eccentric,  at  times  being  out  of  humor  and 
intolerant  and  at  other  times  amusing  himself  by  playing 
like  a  child. 

Some  of  my  schoolmates  were  interesting  enough  to  war¬ 
rant  mentioning  them  by  name.  A  boy,  or  rather  a  young 
man  from  my  own  province,  Florencio  Gavino  Oliva,  was 
of  exceptional  talents  but  only  average  application.  The 

lf‘ Boyhood  Story, ”  p.  vi. 


48 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


same  was  true  of  Moises  Santiago.  He  was  a  mathema¬ 
tician  and  penman.  Also  it  was  true  of  Gonzalo  Manzano. 
The  last  named  then  held  the  position  of  Roman  Emperor. 

The  title  seems  incongruous,  but  Rizal  explains  that 
to  stimulate  the  boys  in  J esuit  colleges  the  custom  was 
to  divide  them  into  two  “ empires,’ ’  one  Roman,  the 
other  Carthaginian  or  Greek.  These  were  continually 
at  war — academic.  The  battles  fought  were  in  the 
class-room,  over  recitations.  Points  were  scored  by 
discovering  errors  in  the  work  of  the  hated  foe.  Rizal 
was  placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  cohorts  of  one  of  these 
“ empires,’ ’  a  private  in  the  rear  ranks.  Within  a 
month  he  was  emperor ;  he  had  outstripped  everybody 
else. 

Paciano  was  there  that  first  day  and  took  him  in 
charge.  He  would  not  allow  the  sensitive  little  artist 
to  lodge  in  the  Walled  City  or  ancient  part  of  Manila, 
“which  seemed  very  gloomy  to  me,”  says  Rizal,  a 
judgment  others  might  echo.  In  another  quarter  of  the 
town,  twenty-five  minutes  away,  he  was  lodged  with 
an  old  maid,  who  seemed  to  have  a  superfluity  of  other 
lodgers  and  a  scarcity  of  room  to  stow  them  in.  “I 
must  not  speak  of  my  sufferings,  ’  ’  says  Jose,  with 
pious  resignation.1 

The  Ateneo  was  not  an  easy  school  in  which  to  gain 
distinction  or  to  win  favor;  Rizal  speedily  achieved 
both.  By  the  end  of  the  first  week  he  was  going  up 
in  his  class.  In  a  month  he  had  captured  his  first 
prize  and  seems  to  have  looked  upon  it  with  rapture. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  he  had  won  another 


1 1 1  Boyhood  Story, 1  ’  p.  19. 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AND  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  49 


prize  and  the  grade  of  ‘  ‘  excellent.  ’  ’  He  confesses  that 
for  the  rest  of  that  year  he  did  not  care  to  apply  him¬ 
self.  He  had  taken  on  a  boyish  resentment  to  some¬ 
thing  a  teacher  had  said,  he  explains.  Possibly  he 
was  not  yet  inured  to  the  prevailing  method  of  driving 
instruction  into  the  heads  of  the  young  with  the  aid 
of  sarcasm  and  shouts.  At  the  end  of  the  year  he 
says  as  if  with  a  kind  of  sigh, 4  4 1  had  only  second  place 
in  all  my  subjects.”  He  received  the  grade  of  “excel¬ 
lent”  but  no  prizes,  and  the  lack  seems  to  have  goaded 
him  to  remorse. 

It  must  have  been  efficacious,  for  when  he  returned 
to  school  he  flung  himself  with  something  like  passion 
into  the  race  for  these  laurels,  and  it  was  said  of  him 
that  no  student  there  had  ever  equaled  his  perform¬ 
ance.  The  fathers  began  to  look  with  wondering  pride 
upon  this  premier  medal  winner.  For  all  that,  he  was 
a  boy  still  and  no  mere  J ohnny  Dighard ;  he  had  fights 
and  he  read  novels  and  he  even  found  time  for  social 
amenities,  so  called.  At  these  latter  he  seems  not  to 
have  won  distinction,  though  the  records  are  meager; 
but  at  least  it  may  be  said  for  him  that  he  managed 
to  fall  in  love.1  One  of  the  first  works  of  fiction  he 
read  was  Dumas’s  “Count  of  Monte  Christo”  in  Span¬ 
ish.  He  says  that  it  gave  him  “delight,”  but  it  did 
more  than  that  for  him.  The  wrongs  and  sufferings 

1  With  a  girl  older  than  he  was  and  already  engaged  to  another.  She 
seems  to  have  been  something  of  a  flirt.  A  few  years  afterward  he  wrote 
(apparently  for  himself)  an  account  of  his  feelings  and  sufferings  in 
those  days.  Mariano  Ponce,  his  friend  and  confidant,  published  the 
document  in  the  “Revista  Filipina, ”  December,  1916.  It  shows  Rizal 
to  have  been  a  poetical  and  dreamy  lover.  When  he  discovered  the  hope¬ 
less  nature  of  his  attachment  he  wandered  alone  in  the  woods,  given  up 
to  a  melancholy  conviction  of  misfortune,  but  recovered  in  time  to  fall 
yi  love  again  and  learn  the  reality  of  his  forebodings. 


50 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


of  Edmopd  Dantes  bore  in  upon  him  the  misfortunes 
of  his  own  people  and  sharply  reminded  him  of  his 
mother  and  the  two  terrible  years  she  had  spent  in 
Santa  Cruz  jail.  In  Calamba  and  all  about  him  fes¬ 
tered  a  social  system  infinitely  worse  than  any  Dumas 
had  imagined. 

About  this  time  he  began  to  lay  out  his  days  into 
a  schedule  of  hours  to  which  he  aimed  rigidly  to 
adhere ;  so  many  hours  for  study,  so  many  for  reading; 
from  four  to  five,  exercise;  five  to  six,  something  else. 
This  was  a  plan  he  followed,  or  tried  to  follow,  all  the 
rest  of  his  life,  and  accounts  in  part  for  that  list  of 
achievements  that  still  staggers  the  investigators.  It 
was  strict  economy  of  time  and  likewise  an  exercise 
in  self-mastery,  a  virtue  on  which  he  set  great  store 
and  in  the  practice  of  which  few  men  outside  of  mon¬ 
astery  walls  have  equaled  him.  He  came  to  look 
upon  his  body  as  a  kind  of  mechanism  with  which,  as 
its  master,  he  could  do  as  he  pleased;  feed  it,  starve 
it,  or  run  races  with  it.  At  the  Ateneo  he  held  it  in 
subjection  while  he  accumulated  medals,  fought  when 
necessary,  and  composed  treatises  in  chemistry,  which, 
next  to  poetry  and  sculpture,  had  become  his  pleasure. 


CHAPTER  III 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY 

FOR  the  times  and  the  place  the  Ateneo  was  a 
good  school,  by  general  consent  the  best  in  the 
Islands,  in  some  respects  matching  well  with  an  in¬ 
ferior  preparatory  school  in  America.  When  the 
Jesuits  were  allowed  to  return  to  the  country  from 
which  they  had  been  banished,  they  brought  with  them 
new  ideas  of  education  into  a  region  where  for  two 
hundred  years  such  imports  had  been  rare.  For  all 
that,  education  at  the  Ateneo  was  not  to  be  had  except 
at  the  price  of  a  struggle.  There  was  no  suggestion 
there,  at  least,  of  Tennyson’s  idea  of  a  row  of  empty 
pates  and  kindly  Instruction  tumbling  in  the  sciences. 
A  student  like  Rizal,  reputed  in  his  second  year  to 
be  the  hardest  working  in  the  institution,  seemed  like 
a  soldier  fighting  in  doubtful  trenches;  education  to 
be  won,  as  it  were,  by  hand-to-hand  conflict.  Years 
afterward  Rizal  wrote  in  his  own  vivid  style  a  descrip¬ 
tion  of  the  manner  in  which  wisdom  was  imparted  in 
even  the  highest  Philippine  seat  of  learning,  from 
which  wonder  grows  to  amazement  that  there  were  in 
those  days  any  educated  Filipinos.  It  reveals  them 
again  as  of  iron  will  and  unmatchable  persistence.  No 
such  dogged  resolution  in  chase  of  knowledge  is  now 
required  of  any  people ;  the  pursuit  of  learning  under 
difficulties,  it  may  well  be  called.  A  Filipino  reading 

it  now  may  be  excused  if  he  is  moved  somewhat  to  hold 

51 


52 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


up  his  head  among  the  nations.  Every  fact  that  one 
of  his  countrymen  added  to  his  store  he  must  wrest 
from  the  hard  hands  of  prejudice  and  desperate 
chance. 

As  to  this,  the  Ateneo  was  not  so  bad  as  the  rest, 
but  bad  enough.  Within  even  its  halls  was  as  yet  no 
emancipation  from  the  notion  that  the  student  is  the 
scum  of  the  earth  and  the  professor  sent  to  scourge 
and  chasten  him.  At  Santo  Tomas,  whither  Rizal 
was  later  transferred,  this  variant  of  purgatory  was 
at  its  worst;  tuition  dwelt  in  the  Lower  Silurian. 
Rizal ’s  description  is  of  the  session  of  a  class  in 
physics.  The  discerning  reader  will  conclude  that  it 
is  the  transcript  of  a  personal  experience : 

The  class-room  was  a  spacious  rectangular  hall  with  large 
grated  windows  that  admitted  an  abundance  of  light  and 
air.  Along  the  two  sides  extended  three  wide  tiers  of  stone 
covered  with  wood,  filled  with  students  arranged  in  alpha¬ 
betical  order.  At  the  end  opposite  the  entrance,  under  a 
print  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  rose  the  professor’s  chair  on 
a  level  platform  with  a  little  stairway  on  each  side.  With 
the  exception  of  a  beautiful  blackboard  in  a  narra  [wood] 
frame,  scarcely  ever  used,  since  there  was  still  written  on  it 
the  viva  that  had  appeared  on  the  opening  day,  no  furni¬ 
ture,  either  useful  or  useless,  was  to  be  seen.  The  walls, 
painted  white  and  covered  with  glazed  tiles,  to  prevent 
scratches,  were  entirely  bare,  having  neither  a  drawing  nor 
a  picture,  nor  even  an  outline  of  any  physical  apparatus. 
The  students  had  no  need  of  any;  no  one  missed  the  prac¬ 
tical  instruction  in  an  extremely  experimental  science;  for 
years  and  years  it  has  been  so  taught,  and  the  country  has 
not  been  upset  but  continues  just  as  ever.  Now  and  then 
some  little  instrument  descended  from  heaven  and  was  ex- 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  53 


hibited  to  the  class  from  a  distance,  like  the  monstrance 
to  the  prostrate  worshipers — look,  but  touch  not !  From 
time  to  time  when  some  complacent  professor  appeared,  one 
day  in  the  year  was  set  aside  for  visiting  the  mysterious 
laboratory  and  gazing  from  without  at  the  puzzling  appa¬ 
ratus  arranged  in  glass  cases.  No  one  could  complain,  for 
on  that  day  there  were  to  be  seen  quantities  of  brass  and 
glassware,  tubes,  disks,  wheels,  bells,  and  the  like — the  ex¬ 
hibition  did  not  get  beyond  that,  and  the  country  was  not 
upset.  .  .  . 

This  was  the  professor  who  that  morning  called  the  roll 
and  directed  many  of  the  students  to  recite  the  lesson  from 
memory,  word  for  word.  The  phonographs  got  into  opera¬ 
tion,  some  well,  some  ill,  some  stammering,  and  received 
their  grades.  He  who  recited  without  an  error  earned  a 
good  mark,  and  he  who  made  more  than  three  mistakes  a 
bad  mark. 

A  fat  boy  with  a  sleepy  face  and  hair  as  stiff  and  hard 
as  the  bristles  of  a  brush  yawned  until  he  seemed  about  to 
dislocate  his  jaws,  and  stretched  himself  with  his  arms 
extended  as  if  he  were  in  his  bed.  The  professor  saw  this 
and  wished  to  startle  him. 

“Eh,  there,  sleepy-head!  What’s  this?  Lazy,  too;  so 
it ’s  sure  you  don’t  know  the  lesson,  ha?” 

This  question,  instead  of  offending  the  class,  amused 
them  and  many  laughed;  it  was  a  daily  occurrence.  But 
the  sleeper  did  not  laugh ;  he  arose  and,  with  a  bound, 
rubbed  his  eyes,  and,  as  if  a  steam-engine  were  turning 
the  phonograph,  began  to  recite: 

“The  name  of  mirror  is  applied  to  all  polished  surfaces 
intended  to  produce  by  the  reflection  of  light  the  images  of 
the  objects  placed  before  said  surfaces.  From  the  substance 
that  forms  these  surfaces  they  are  divided  into  metallic 
mirrors  and  glass  mirrors - ” 


54 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


“Stop,  stop,  stop!”  interrupted  the  professor.  “Heavens, 
what  a  rattle !  We  were  at  the  point  where  the  mirrors  are 
divided  into  metallic  and  glass,  eh?  Now  if  I  should  pre¬ 
sent  to  you  a  block  of  wood,  a  piece  of  kamagon  for  in¬ 
stance,  well  polished  and  varnished,  or  a  slab  of  black 
marble  well  burnished,  or  a  square  of  jet,  which  would  re¬ 
flect  the  images  of  objects  placed  before  them,  how  would 
you  classify  those  mirrors  ?” 

Whether  he  did  not  know  what  to  answer  or  did  not 
understand  the  question,  the  student  tried  to  get  out  of  the 
difficulty  by  demonstrating  that  he  knew  the  lesson ;  so  he 
rushed  on  like  a  torrent: 

“The  first  are  composed  of  brass  or  an  alloy  of  different 
metals,  and  the  second  of  a  sheet  of  glass,  with  its  two  sides 
well  polished,  one  of  which  has  an  amalgam  of  tin  adhering 
to  it.” 

“Tut,  tut,  tut!  That ’s  not  it!  I  say  to  you,  ‘Dominus 
vobiscum,’  and  you  answer  me  with,  ‘ Requies cat  in  pace!1  ” 

The  worthy  professor  then  repeated  the  question  in  the 
vernacular  of  the  markets,  interspersed  with  cosas  and  abas 
at  every  moment. 

The  poor  youth  did  not  know  how  to  get  out  of  the  quan¬ 
dary  ;  he  doubted  whether  to  include  kamagon  with  the 
metals,  or  the  marble  with  the  glasses,  and  leave  the  jet  as 
a  neutral  substance,  until  Juanita  Pelaez  maliciously 
prompted  him: 

“The  mirror  of  kamagon  among  the  wooden  mirrors.” 

The  incautious  youth  repeated  this  aloud,  and  half  the 
class  was  convulsed  with  laughter. 

“A  good  sample  of  wood  you  are  yourself!”  exclaimed 
the  professor,  laughing  in  spite  of  himself.  “Let  ’s  see 
from  what  you  would  define  a  mirror — from  a  substance  per 
se,  in  quantum  est  superficies,  or  from  the  substance  upon 
which  the  surface  rests,  the  raw  material,  modified  by  the 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  55 


attribute  ‘surface,’  since  it  is  clear  that,  surface  being  an 
accidental  property  of  bodies,  it  cannot  exist  without  sub¬ 
stance — what  do  you  say?” 

“I?  Nothing!”  the  wretched  boy  was  about  to  reply, 
for  he  did  not  understand  what  it  was  all  about,  confused 
as  he  was  by  so  many  surfaces  and  so  many  accidents  that 
smote  cruelly  on  his  ears,  but  a  sense  of  shame  restrained 
him.  Filled  with  anguish  and  breaking  into  a  cold  perspi¬ 
ration,  he  began  to  repeat  between  his  teeth:  “The  name 
of  mirror  is  applied  to  all  polished  surfaces - ” 

“Ergo,  per  te,  the  mirror  is  the  surface,”  angled  the 
professor.  “Well,  then,  clear  up  this  difficulty.  If  the 
surfaoe  is  the  mirror,  it  must  be  of  no  consequence  to  the 
‘essence’  of  the  mirror  what  may  be  found  behind  this  sur¬ 
face,  since  what  is  behind  it  does  not  affect  the  ‘essence’ 
that  is  before  it,  id  est,  the  surface,  quae  super  faciern  est, 
quia  vocatur  superficies,  facies  ea  quae  supra  videtur.  Do 
you  admit  that  or  do  you  not  admit  it?” 

The  poor  youth’s  hair  stood  up  straighter  than  ever,  as 
though  acted  upon  by  some  magnetic  force. 

“Do  you  admit  it  or  do  you  not  admit  it?” 

“Anything!  Whatever  you  wish,  Padre,”  was  his 
thought,  but  he  did  not  dare  to  express  it  from  fear  of 
ridicule.  That  wa-s  a  dilemma  indeed  and  he  had  never 
been  in  a  worse  one.  He  had  a  vague  idea  that  the  most 
innocent  thing  could  not  be  admitted  to  the  friars  but  that 
they,  or  rather  their  estates  and  curacies,  would  get  out  of 
it  all  the  results  and  advantages  imaginable.  So  his  good 
angel  prompted  him  to  deny  everything  with  all  the  energy 
of  his  soul  and  refractoriness  of  his  hair,  and  he  was  about 
to  shout  a  proud  nego,  for  the  reason  that  he  who  denies 
everything  does  not  compromise  himself  in  anything,  as  a 
certain  lawyer  had  once  told  him;  but  the  evil  habits  of 
dk regarding  the  dictates  of  one’s  own  conscience,  of  having 


56 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


little  faith  in  legal  folk,  and  of  seeking  aid  from  others 
where  one  is  sufficient  unto  himself  were  his  undoing.  His 
companions,  especially  Juanito  Pelaez,  were  making  signs 
to  him  to  admit  it,  so  he  let  himself  be  carried  away  by  his 
evil  destiny  and  exclaimed,  “Concedo,  Padre,”  in  a  voice 
as  faltering  as  if  he  were  saying,  “In  manus  tuas  commendo 
spiritum  meum.” 

“Concedo  antecedentem,”  echoed  the  professor,  smiling 
maliciously.  “Ergo,  I  can  scratch  the  mercury  off  a  look¬ 
ing-glass,  put  in  its  place  a  piece  of  bibinka,  and  we  shall 
still  have  a  mirror,  eh?  Now  what  shall  we  have?”  .  .  . 

Another  pupil  is  questioned. 

“What ’s  your  name?”  the  professor  asked  him. 

“Placido,”  was  the  curt  reply. 

“Aha!  Placido  Penitente,  although  you  look  more  like 
Placido  the  Prompter — or  the  Prompted.  But,  Penitent, 
I  ’m  going  to  impose  some  penance  on  you  for  your 
promptings.” 

Pleased  with  his  play  on  words,  he  ordered  the  youth  to 
recite  the  lesson;  and  the  latter,  in  the  state  of  mind  to 
which  he  was  reduced,  made  more  than  three  mistakes. 
Shaking  his  head  up  and  down,  the  professor  slowly  opened 
the  register  and  slowly  scanned  it  while  he  called  off  the 
names  in  a  low  voice. 

“Palencia  —  Paloma  —  Panganiban  —  Pedraza  —  Pelado 
— Pelaez — Penitente,  aha!  Placido  Penitente,  fifteen  unex¬ 
cused  absences - ” 

Placido  started  up.  “Fifteen  absences,  Padre?” 

“Fifteen  unexcused  absences,”  continued  the  professor, 
“so  that  you  only  lack  one  to  be  dropped  from  the  roll.” 

“Fifteen  absences,  fifteen  absences),”  repeated  Placido 
in  amazement.  “I  have  never  been  absent  more  than  four 
times,  and,  with  to-rlay,  perhaps  five.” 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  57 


“Jesso,  jesso,  monseer,” 1  replied  the  professor,  exam¬ 
ining  the  youth  over  his  gold  eye-glasses.  “You  confess 
that  you  have  missed  five  times,  and  God  knows  if  you  have 
missed  oftener.  Atqui,  as  I  rarely  call  the  roll,  every  time 
I  catch  any  one  I  put  five  marks  against  him;  ergo,  how 
many  are  five  times  five?  Have  you  forgotten  the  multi¬ 
plication-table?  Five  times  five?” 

‘  ‘  Twenty-five.  ’  ’ 

“Correct,  correct!  Thus  you  have  still  got  away  with 
ten,  because  I  have  caught  you  only  three  times.  Huh,  if  I 
had  caught  you  every  time — Now  how  many  are  three  times 
five?” 

“Fifteen.” 

‘  ‘  Fifteen,  right  you  are !  ’  ’  concluded  the  professor,  clos¬ 
ing  the  register.  “If  you  miss  once  more — out  of  doors 
with  you,  get  out!  Ha,  now  a  mark  for  the  failure  in  the 
daily  lesson.” 

He  again  opened  the  register,  sought  out  the  name,  and 
entered  the  mark.  “Come,  only  one  mark,”  he  said,  “since 
you  hadn’t  any  before.” 

“But,  Padre,”  exclaimed  Placido,  restraining  himself,  “if 
your  Reverence  puts  a  mark  against  me  for  failing  in  the  les¬ 
son,  your  Reverence  owes  it  to  me  to  erase  the  one  for  absence 
that  you  have  put  against  me  for  to-day.  ’  ’ 

His  Reverence  made  no  answer.  First,  he  slowly  entered 
the  mark,  then  contemplated  it  with  his  head  on  one  side — the 
mark  must  be  artistic — closed  the  register,  and  asked  with 
great  sarcasm,  “Aba,  and  why  so,  sir?” 

“Because  I  can’t  conceive,  Padre,  how  one  can  be  absent 
from  the  class  and  at  the  same  time  recite  the  lesson  in  it. 
Your  Reverence  is  saying  that  to  be  is  not  to  be.” 

“Naku,  a  metaphysician,  but  a  rather  premature  one !  So 
you  can’t  conceive  of  it,  eh?  Sed  patet  experientia  and 

1  The  professor  speaks  these  words  in  the  vulgar  dialect. 


58 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


contra  exp  orient  iam  negantem,  fusilibus  est  arguendmn,  do 
you  understand?  And  can’t  you  conceive  with  your  philo¬ 
sophical  head  that  one  can  be  absent  from  the  class  and  not 
know  the  lesson  at  the  same  time?  Is  it  a  fact  that  absence 
necessarily  implies  knowledge?  What  do  you  say  to  that, 
philosophaster  ?  ’  ’ 

This  last  epithet  was  the  drop  of  water  that  made  the  full 
cup  overflow.  Placido  enjoyed  among  his  friends  the  repu¬ 
tation  of  being  a  philosopher,  so  he  lost  his  patience,  threw 
down  his  book,  arose,  and  faced  the  professor. 

“Enough,  Padre,  enough!  Your  Reverence  can  put  all  the 
marks  against  me  that  you  wish,  but  you  have  n ’t  the  right 
to  insult  me.  Your  Reverence  may  stay  with  the  class;  I 
can’t  stand  any  more.”  Without  further  farewell,  he  stalked 
away. 

The  class  was  astounded ;  such  an  assumption  of  dignity  had 
scarcely  ever  been  seen,  and  who  would  have  thought  it  of 
Placido  Penitente?  The  surprised  professor  bit  his  lips  and 
shook  his  head  threateningly  as  he  watched  him  depart.  Then 
in  a  trembling  voice  he  began  his  preachment  on  the  same 
old  theme,  delivered,  however,  with  more  energy  and  more 
eloquence.  It  dealt  with  the  growing  arrogance,  the  innate 
ingratitude,  the  presumption,  the  lack  of  respect  for  superiors, 
the  pride  that  the  spirit  of  darkness  infused  in  the  young,  the 
lack  of  manners,  the  absence  of  courtesy,  and  so  on.  From 
this  he  passed  to  coarse  jest  and  sarcasm.  .  .  . 

So  he  went  on  with  his  harangue  until  the  bell  rang  and 
the  class  was  over.  The  234  students,  after  reciting  their 
prayers,  went  out  as  ignorant  as  when  they  went  in,  but 
breathing  more  freely,  as  if  a  great  weight  had  been  lifted 
from  them.  Each  youth  had  lost  another  hour  of  his  life  and 
with  it  a  portion  of  his  dignity  and  self-respect,  and  in  ex¬ 
change  there  was  an  increase  of  discontent,  of  aversion  to 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  59 


study,  of  resentment  in  their  heart.  After  all  this  ask  for 
knowledge,  dignity,  gratitude! 

Just  as  the  235  spent  their  class  hours,  so  the  thousands  of 
students  that  preceded  them  have  spent  theirs,  and,  if  matters 
do  not  mend,  so  will  those  yet  to  come  spend  theirs,  and  be 
brutalized,  while  wounded  dignity  and  youthful  enthusiasm 
will  be  converted  into  hatred  and  sloth.1 

Rizal  liked  the  Ateneo  and  the  Ateneo  liked  him, 
students  as  well  as  fathers.  His  fellows  seem  to  have 
had  for  him  more  of  awe  than  affection  as  they  contem¬ 
plated  his  always  growing  list  of  victories.  We  may 
believe  now  that  the  distance  that  separated  them  from 
him  was  not  so  great  as  they  thought,  the  wizardry  of 
his  prize-winning  being,  next  to  his  hard  work,  the 
advantages  of  his  definite  aim.  Most  men  that  acquire 
this  and  follow  it  with  any  steadiness,  whether  it  be 
for  wealth,  position,  or  reputation,  seem  to  their  con¬ 
temporaries  a  kind  of  demon,  but  if  they  live,  indent 
the  chronicles  of  their  times.  The  idea  that  seized 
upon  Rizal  and  was  always  growing  in  his  thoughts 
was  that  he  ought  to  do  something  to  help  his  people 
out  of  the  prison-house  of  ignorance  and  tyranny  in 
which  they  sat  the  bound  captives  of  a  preposterous 
social  organization.  This  was  enough  to  mark  him 
apart  from  students  that  went  to  the  Ateneo  only  be¬ 
cause  their  parents  told  them  to  go.  Good  things  for 
him  were  things  that  helped  him  to  his  purpose  and 
bad  things  were  things  that  got  across  his  way. 

Long  after  he  had  left  those  sequestered  halls,  he 

1  “  El  Filibusterismo,  ’  ’  Chap.  XIII.  Derbyshire ’s  translation. 


60 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


put  together  notes  on  his  recollections  of  his  life  at 
the  Ateneo,  that,  curt  as  they  are,  light  up  his  views 
of  himself,  his  peculiar  self-abnegation  and  his  idea 
of  his  destiny.  He  says : 

After  the  vacation,  in  that  memorable  year  of  my  mother’s 
release,  I  again  had  my  lodgings  in  the  Walled  City.  .  .  .  My 
mother  had  not  wanted  me  to  return  to  Manila,  saying  that  I 
already  had  a  sufficient  education.  Did  she  have  a  presenti¬ 
ment  of  what  was  going  to  happen  to  me  ?  Can  it  be  that  a 
mother’s  heart  gives  her  double  vision? 

My  future  profession  was  still  unsettled.  My  father 
wanted  me  to  study  metaphysics,  so  I  enrolled  in  that  course. 
But  my  interest  was  so  slight  that  I  did  not  even  buy  a  copy 
of  the  text-book.  A  former  schoolmate,  who  had  finished  his 
course  three  months  before,  was  my  only  intimate  friend.  He 
lived  in  the  same  street  that  I  lived  in. 

On  Sundays  and  other  holidays,  this  friend  used  to  call  for 
me  and  we  would  spend  the  day  at  my  great-aunt’s  house  in 
Trozo.  My  aunt  knew  his  father.  When  my  youngest  sister 
entered  La  Concordia  College,  I  used  to  visit  her,  too,  on  the 
holidays.  Another  friend  had  a  sister  in  the  same  school,  so 
we  could  go  together.  I  made  a  pencil  sketch  of  his  sister  from 
a  photograph  she  lent  me.  On  December  8,  the  festival  of 
La  Concordia,  some  other  students  and  I  went  to  the  college. 
It  was  a  fine  day,  and  the  building  was  gay  with  decorations 
of  banners,  lanterns,  and  flowers. 

Shortly  after  that  I  went  home  for  the  Christmas  holidays. 
On  the  same  steamer  was  a  Calamba  girl  that  had  been  a 
pupil  in  Santa  Catalina  College  for  nearly  five  years.  Her 
father  was  with  her.  We  were  well  acquainted,  but  her 
schooling  had  made  her  bashful.  She  kept  her  back  to  me 
while  we  talked.  To  help  her  pass  the  time,  I  asked  about 
her  school  and  studies,  but  I  got  hardly  more  than  “yes”  and 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  61 


“no”  answers.  She  seemed  to  have  almost,  if  not  entirely, 
forgotten  her  Tagalog.  When  I  walked  into  our  house  in 
Calamba,  my  mother  at  first  did  not  recognize  me.  The  sad 
cause  was  that  she  had  almost  lost  her  sight.  My  sisters 
greeted  me  joyfully,  and  I  could  read  their  welcome  in  their 
smiling  faces.  But  my  father,  who  seemed  to  be  the  most 
pleased  of  all,  said  least.  .  .  . 

There  I  tied  the  horse  by  the  roadside  and  for  a  time 
watched  the  water  flowing  through  the  irrigation  ditch.  Its 
swiftness  reminded  me  how  rapidly  my  days  were  going  by. 
I  am  now  twenty  years  old  and  have  the  satisfaction  of  re¬ 
membering  that  in  the  crises  of  my  life  I  have  not  followed  my 
own  pleasure.  I  have  always  tried  to  live  by  my  principles 
and  to  do  the  heavy  duties  I  have  undertaken.1 

The  instructor  at  the  Ateneo  that  Rizal  chiefly  liked 
was  Father  Guerrico,  a  kindly,  gentle,  devout  old  man, 
full  of  learning  and  given  to  good  works.  Long  after 
swift  and  stirring  events  in  the  great  world  had 
dimmed  the  memory  of  other  faces  at  the  Ateneo,  the 
visage  of  Father  Guerrico,  furrowed  with  thought,  yet 
beaming  with  good  will  to  all  mankind,  was  clear 
before  Rizal,  and  with  that  marvelous  gift  of  his  for 
sculpture  he  made,  out  of  his  lingering  recollections,  a 
bust  of  the  father,  achieving  a  likeness  of  extraordi¬ 
nary  quality,  so  subtly  charged  it  is  with  the  feeling 
of  truth  that  confers  life  upon  portraiture.  But  there 
is,  indeed,  no  room  to  doubt  his  high  artistic  calling; 
if  to  painting  or  to  sculpture  he  had  cared  to  devote 
himself,  he  would  have  been  one  of  the  world  figures 
of  his  day.  When  one  so  gifted  and  having  also  the 
artist’s  craving  for  expression  and  achievement  makes 


1  ‘  ‘  Boyhood  Story  M:  v. 


62 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


of  these  a  sacrifice  for  the  general  welfare,  it  may 
be  doubted  if  rack  or  prison  mean  much  more. 

Sculpture  came  as  easily  to  him  as  laughter  to  a 
child.  From  his  babyhood,  or  thereabouts,  he  had  been 
modeling  these  figures  in  clay,  a  spontaneous  and  irre¬ 
pressible  outgiving  of  the  spirit  in  him;  figures 
strangely  vital,  and  wittily  touched,  so  that  to-day  the 
observer  coming  upon  them  for  the  first  time  beholds 
them  with  a  sense  of  something  weird,  as  if  in  some 
way  he  had  come  also  upon  the  sculptor  behind  his 
work.  Often  with  no  tool  but  a  pocket-knife  he  worked 
in  wood  to  the  same  results.  There  are  extant  faces 
and  busts  he  carved  thus  in  wood  that  have  an  almost 
inexplicable  potency  to  suggest  character,  thought, 
or  life. 

He  had  as  great  a  command  over  his  brush  and 
pencil;  his  sketch-book  has  a  certain  charm,  distinc¬ 
tive  and  rare;  he  had  the  French  artist’s  uncanny 
power  to  suggest  with  a  single  line  an  inevitable  trait 
or  an  overmastering  feature  of  a  landscape.  He  could 
paint  before  he  had  taken  a  lesson.  When  he  was  a 
mere  boy,  still  at  Calamba,  before  he  had  entered  the 
Ateneo,  a  banner  was  spoiled  that  was  to  have  been 
used  in  one  of  the  local  festivals  that  were  then  so  im¬ 
portant;  Jose  painted  in  its  place  a  banner  that  all 
men  declared  to  be  better  than  the  original1  At  the 
Ateneo  he  carved  an  image  of  the  Virgin  Mother  that 
won  the  unstinted  praise  of  men  not  novices  in  art, 
and  a  statue  of  Christ  that  for  twenty  years  was  one 
of  the  admired  exhibits  of  the  school  hall. 

1  Craig,  p.  92. 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  63 


By  all  accounts,  this  multiplex  being  could  write  as 
easily;  he  was  poet  and  dramatist  as  well  as  sculptor 
and  painter.  At  school  he  continued  to  practise  the 
art  his  mother  had  taught  him,  showing  himself  a 
skilled  practitioner  in  verse  and  a  devout  worshiper 
of  poetry,  Spanish  and  Tagalog.  For,  despite  the  com¬ 
mon  European  belief  to  the  contrary,  Tagalog  is  not 
the  dialect  of  a  tribe  of  savages  but  a  highly  developed 
language  having  an  ancient  and  honorable  literature. 
There  were  poems  in  Tagalog  as  early  as  in  English, 
and  many  a  beautiful  Tagalog  poem  has  been  sung 
and  resung  and  passed  into  the  heritage  of  the  people 
where  no  European  speech  had  ever  been  heard. 

At  the  age  when  children  usually  begin  to  learn  their 
alphabet  this  boy  was  making  verses.  A  little  later 
he  could  see  subjects  not  only  for  poems  but  for  plays. 
Before  he  was  eight  years  old  he  had  written  a  drama 
that  was  performed  at  a  local  festival  and  brought 
him  two  pesos.  At  the  Ateneo,  poetry  and  dramatic 
composition  were  his  relaxation,  his  pastime,  his  joy 
and  rapture,  when  he  turned  from  the  ponderous 
routine  of  the  curriculum. 

In  December,  1875,  he  being  then  fifteen,  he  wrote 
‘ ‘The  Embarkation,  a  Hymn  in  Honor  of  Magellan’s 
Fleet,’ ’  a  poem  in  seven  stanzas  of  eight  lines.  The 
measure  may  be  called  anapestic  dimeter,  of  which  old 
Skelton  was  a  master  and  in  which  Herrick  occasion¬ 
ally  performed,  but  rare  thereafter  in  English  poetry 
until  Hood  and  Swinburne  revived  it.  A  few  months 
later  he  appeared  with  a  poem  of  nine  stanzas  ar¬ 
ranged  much  after  the  manner  of  the  Sicilian  octave. 


64 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


This  was  on  “Education”  and  contained  exquisite 
imagery,  while  it  showed  an  unmistakable  grasp  of 
melodic  resource.1 

In  ranging  among  all  books,  old  and  new,  that 
seemed  to  promise  any  profit,  he  came  upon  one  in 
these  days  at  the  Ateneo  that  helped  mightily  to  direct 
his  career,  while  it  freshened  his  young  hopes  to  a 
new  bent  concerning  his  people  and  what  was  to  become 
of  them.  It  was  a  Spanish  translation  of  “Travels  in 
the  Philippines,”  2  by  Dr.  F.  Jagor,  the  German  natu¬ 
ralist.  Something  more  than  the  flora  and  fauna  of 
these  fascinating  Islands  concerned  Dr.  Jagor;  like  so 
many  other  just  and  reflective  visitors  in  those  parts, 
he  had  been  led  to  think  much  about  the  remarkable 
characteristics  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  singular  mis¬ 
fortune  that  had  befallen  them.  Unless  all  signs  were 
deceptive,  this  was  a  race  endowed  for  a  career  and  a 
place  in  the  world’s  procession;  of  these  it  had  been 
cheated  by  an  outland  despotism  whose  sole  founda¬ 
tion  stood  upon  force.  In  all  probability  this  anomaly 
could  not  endure.  Spain,  still  groping  in  the  past,  was 
no  possible  cicerone  for  a  race  that  felt  springing 
within  it  the  strong  man-child  of  nationality  and  prog¬ 
ress.  One  thing,  if  none  other,  was  at  hand  to  insure 
the  doom  of  such  absurdity.  Dr.  Jagor  had  traveled 
in  the  United  States  and  considered  its  profound  influ¬ 
ence  upon  other  nations.  Its  life  and  growth  were 
daily  proofs  before  him  of  the  eternal  persistence  of 
the  democratic  idea,  and  from  that  showing  the  world 

1  These  poems  are  printed  by  Retana,  pp.  26-29.  A  translation  of  one 
of  them  is  attempted  for  the  first  time  in  the  Appendix  A  of  this  work. 

2  London,  1875. 


THE  ATENEO  UE  MANILA 

The  school  attended  by  Rizal  in  Manila  where  he  won  several  prizes  in  literature 


FIEST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  65 


could  never  turn  away.  He  saw  that  the  example  of 
the  United  States  had  spurred  all  South  America  to 
revolt  and  eventually  to  win  freedom;  hence  he  con¬ 
cluded  that  the  spread  of  this  influence  around  the 
Pacific  was  inevitable.1 

In  proportion  as  the  navigation  of  the  west  coast  of  America 
extends  the  influence  of  the  American  element  over  the  South 
Sea  [wrote  this  prophet],  the  captivating,  magic  power  that 
the  great  republic  exercises  over  the  Spanish  colonies  will  not 
fail  to  make  itself  also  felt  in  the  Philippines.  The  Ameri¬ 
cans  are  evidently  destined  to  bring  to  a  full  development  the 
germs  originated  by  the  Spaniards.  Conquerors  of  modern 
times,  they  pursue  their  road  to  victory  with  the  assistance  of 
the  pioneer’s  ax  and  plow,  representing  an  age  of  peace  and 
commercial  prosperity  in  contrast  to  that  bygone  and  chival¬ 
rous  age  whose  champions  were  upheld  by  the  cross  and  pro¬ 
tected  by  the  sword.  .  .  . 

With  regard  to  permanence,  the  Spanish  system  cannot  for 
a  moment  be  compared  with  that  of  America.  While  each  of 
the  Spanish  colonies,  in  order  to  favor  a  privileged  class  by 
immediate  gains,  exhausted  still  more  the  already  enfeebled 
populace  of  the  metropolis  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  best  of  its 
ability,  America,  on  the  contrary,  has  attracted  to  itself  from 
all  countries  the  most  energetic  element,  which,  once  on  its 
soil  and  freed  from  all  fetters,  restlessly  progressing,  has  ex¬ 
tended  its  power  and  influence  still  farther  and  farther.  The 
Philippines  will  escape  the  action  of  the  two  great  neighbor¬ 
ing  powers  [the  United  States  and  Great  Britain]  all  the  less 
for  the  fact  that  neither  they  [the  Philippines]  nor  their 
metropolis  find  their  condition  of  a  stable  and  well-balanced 
nature. 

* 

1  Craig,  p.  95. 


66 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


These  deliberated  forecasts  deeply  impressed  Rizal. 
They  were  written  about  1874.  Looking  back  now,  the 
applause  Jagor  deserves  for  his  keen  vision  is  easy, 
but  in  1874  or  1876  who  hailed  him  as  a  prophet?  If 
he  found  a  disciple  outside  of  the  grim  walls  of  the 
Ateneo  the  fact  escaped  record;  but  to  Rizal  the 
sequence  seemed  normal  to  his  own  reflections.  He 
had  an  instinctive  faith  in  the  latent  capacity  of  his 
people;  now  he  noted  that  this  cool-minded  scientist 
came  from  judicial  analysis  of  these  same  people  to 
share  the  same  belief.  The  next  step  was  facile;  he 
perceived  the  logical  procession  of  Jagor  ’s  reasonings 
about  the  rising  American  influence.  It  must  be  so, 
then,  that  America  would  prove  to  be  light  and  leader¬ 
ship  to  the  Far  East,  and  from  this  time  he  turned  to 
the  United  States  as  an  example  and  a  well-spring  of 
hope.1 

That  same  year  came  the  celebration  of  the  first  one 
hundred  years  of  American  independence,  and  the  re¬ 
ports  of  it  fell  pat  with  his  new  meditations.  As  a  rule, 
the  newspapers  of  Manila,  inspired  by  the  Spanish 
habitude,  had  referred  with  phrases  of  contempt  to 
the  American  republic.  The  centennial  festival  seemed 
to  modify  or  to  beat  through  their  prejudices,  for  space 
was  given  to  long  and  respectful  reviews  of  the  prog¬ 
ress  and  achievements  of  the  United  States,  and  with 
these  an  outline  of  the  desperate  struggle  by  which 
it  had  won  its  independence.  Upon  a  mind  like  Rizal ’s, 
enlisted  for  freedom,  susceptible  to  all  things  heroic 
and  idealistic,  the  effect  must  have  been  galvanic.  It 

1  Craig,  pp.  696-98, 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  67 


was  a  lesson  of  more  than  one  angle.  Here  was  a 
people  that  had  been  under  such  an  incubus  of  polit¬ 
ical  medievalism  as  was  strangling  his  countrymen. 
A  handful  challenging  the  greatest  power  in  the  world, 
they  had  achieved  their  emancipation,  and  he  could  not 
fail  to  note  that  the  disparity  between  the  Philippines 
and  Spain  was  hardly  greater  than  that  between  Amer¬ 
ica  and  Great  Britain  in  1776. 

In  the  next  place,  the  heart  of  the  system  the  Amer¬ 
icans  had  thrown  over  was  the  idea  that  the  royal 
authority  imposed  upon  them  was  of  God  and  resist¬ 
ance  to  it  was  an  impiety  God  would  surely  punish. 
One  nation,  according  to  this  record,  had  not  only 
resisted  such  authority  but  cast  it  off  and  trampled 
upon  it,  and,  behold,  its  reward  was  not  the  curse  but 
the  apparent  blessing  of  God  in  richest  measure.  He 
studied  the  history  of  this  nation,  considered  its  work 
in  the  world,  and  deemed  the  conclusions  of  Jagor  to 
be  sound  and  just. 

But  Jagor  had  supplied  also  a  certain  warning.  “It 
seems  to  be  desirable  for  the  natives  [Filipinos]  that 
the  above-mentioned  views  should  not  speedily  become 
accomplished  facts,  because  their  education  and  train¬ 
ing  hitherto  have  not  been  of  a  nature  to  prepare  them 
successfully  to  compete  with  either  of  the  other  two 
energetic,  creative,  and  progressive  nations.”  Noth¬ 
ing  could  be  plainer;  this  was  the  great  work  to  which 
he  should  apply  himself.  His  people  must  be  trained 
and  educated  for  the  freedom  they  were  one  day  to 
have.  They  must  be  educated  first  and  then  aroused. 
Therefore,  whatever  learning,  discipline,  equipment 


68 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


of  facts  and  knowledge,  power  and  resources  he  could 
gain  were  capital,  energy,  equipment  laid  by  for  their 
service. 

Toward  two  sorts  of  men  the  world  has  never 
warmed  while  they  lived ;  toward  a  man  of  melancholy 
and  a  man  with  a  fixed  and  serious  purpose  other  than 
material.  Rizal  was  both  of  these  in  one.  A  school 
is  a  microcosm  of  the  world  outside  it.  He  was  admired 
at  the  Ateneo  but  went  his  way  there  essentially  alone. 
He  seems  to  have  felt  that  this  must  be  so  and  accepted 
loneliness  in  the  spirit  of  his  philosophy  and  as  part  of 
the  task  laid  upon  him.  The  natural  complement  of  his 
loneliness  was  an  unusual  capacity  for  friendship ;  the 
natural  complement  of  his  melancholy  was  a  keen  sense 
of  humor  and  a  flashing  wit;  for  so  do  men  seem  to  be 
made  up  and  (except  in  novels  and  plays)  never  of  one 
piece. 

Being  real  and  breathing  and  not  a  lay  figure  of 
romance,  Rizal  was  like  the  rest  of  us,  subject  to  gusts 
of  this  and  that  and  a  gamut  of  moods;  and  yet,  like 
other  men  of  strong  will,  managed  to  steer  fairly 
straight  for  one  landfall.  When  the  fit  was  on  him 
he  was  wont  to  draw  for  his  family  vastly  funny 
sketches,  to  write  quips,  to  make  jokes,  and  even  to 
fashion  comic  verses.  His  gift  of  portraiture,  a  singu¬ 
lar  power  to  reproduce  with  convincing  strokes  any 
face  he  had  ever  noted,  ran  over  at  the  least  provoca¬ 
tion  into  rollicking  burlesque.  In  later  times  he 
would  have  been  a  priceless  cartoonist;  to  illuminate 
any  thought  that  crossed  his  mind  a  humorous  or  gro¬ 
tesque  or  inspiring  picture  fell  easily  from  his  pencil. 
It  was  from  his  brooding  introspection  that  he  reacted 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  69 


to  his  excruciatingly  funny  caricatures,  and  if  he  had 
not  some  such  vent  might  have  gone  mad  or  (terrible 
thought!)  even  have  become  a  prig. 

But  from  these  adventures  he  came  back  to  the 
sobering  facts  of  his  mission  as  the  business  and  only 
reality  of  life.  To  contribute  something  to  the  helping 
and  enlightening  of  these  people  was  his  metier  and 
the  only  thing  really  important.  A  many-sided  man, 
as  you  shall  see.  With  all  the  laborious  exactions  of 
his  time  schedule,  he  could  still  continue  his  worship 
of  art  and  beauty;  he  kept  on  with  his  modeling,  kept 
on  with  his  painting  and  poetry.  His  holidays  he  some¬ 
times  spent  with  his  mother  at  Calamba ;  and  his  habit 
was  to  go  home  to  her  with  a  pocketful  of  verses  of 
his  recent  making.  That  excellent  woman  and  ju¬ 
dicious  critic  set  herself  to  clarify  and  direct  the  fire 
thus  burning.1  She  must  have  succeeded  after  good 
models,  for  Rizal  freshened  the  laurels  of  his  Ateneo 
triumphs  by  winning  prizes  beyond  its  intellectual  tilt- 
yards.  The  Manila  Lyceum  of  Art  and  Literature 
founded  a  competition  among  Filipino  poets,  '  Satu¬ 
rates  y  mestizos.”  2  Rizal  won  it  with  a  poem  entitled 
“To  the  Philippine  Youth.”3  From  a  point  of  view 
that  was  never  urged  he  had  no  right  to  win  it:  the 
Lyceum  was  supposed  to  be  for  adults,  and  he  was 
only  eighteen  years  old.  But  the  subject  had  called 
forth  the  best  that  was  in  him;  it  offered  a  chance  to 
preach  his  favorite  theme,  to  appeal  to  his  young 
countrymen,  and  to  stir  in  them  something  of  the  pas- 

1  Rizal 7s  1 1  Boyhood  Story. 7  7 

2  Retana,  p.  31. 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


70 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


sion  that  moved  him,  while  he  suggested  the  Filipinas 
that  might  be.1 

His  achievement  went  beyond  prize-winning.  By 
a  route  that  even  he  had  never  imagined,  it  became  a 
thing  of  history.  In  this  poem  he  called  the  Philippine 
Islands  his  ‘ ‘  fatherland. ’  ’  The  Philippine  youth  were 
the  Bella  esperanza  de  la  P atria  Mia! 2  Simple  and 
natural  as  the  reference  was,  it  started  the  easy 
typhoon  to  blowing.  No  such  phrase  from  such  a 
source  with  such  an  application  was  tolerable.  In  his 
poem  on  “  Education/  ’  Rizal  had  spoken  of  that  sweet 
wisdom  as  illuminating  the  “fatherland,”  but  this  was 
naively  taken  to  have  a  wholly  different  meaning.  To 
these  people,  in  the  litany  of  lip-service,  at  least,  the 
only  fatherland  they  knew  was  the  Spain  they  had 
never  seen  but  of  which  the  image  in  their  hearts  was 
all  somber  and  cruel.  With  passionate  adoration  Rizal 
now  spoke  of  another  fatherland,  of  the  Filipinas  of 
his  birthplace ;  he  dared  to  address  it  even  as  a  Span¬ 
iard  might  address  Spain,  “Vuela,  Genio  Grcmdioso !” 
“Come,  thou  great  genius!”  Yet  he  knew  it  as  a 
country  that  breathed  the  effluvium  of  an  unnatural 
existence — chained  to  a  corpse.  In  irony  he  was  deal¬ 
ing;  a  terrible,  sobering  irony.  Already  he  felt  in  his 
heart  that  the  existing  state  could  not  last ;  no  proud, 
capable,  normally  minded  people  with  a  historic  back¬ 
ground  of  their  own  would  long  endure  it.  Echoes 
of  the  great  wave  that  rolled  around  the  rest  of  the 
world  grew  every  day  in  the  ears  of  these  Islanders. 
Discontent  surged  in  their  hearts,  and  Rizal  in  his 

1  Craig,  pp.  109-110. 

2  “Fair  hope  of  my  fatherland. ” 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  71 


poem  was  the  first  voice  and  wise  articulation  of  their 
protest.1 

In  this,  and  as  a  piece  of  art,  it  was  powerful  and 
significant.  He  addressed  the  young  men  of  the  Philip¬ 
pines  as  if  they  were  like  other  young  men  of  the  world, 
free,  and  able  to  put  forth  their  powers,  to  make  their 
way;  not  inferior,  not  the  fags  and  drudges  of  the 
hateful  Spanish  tradition.  Here  was  innovation — 
here  was  danger!  In  no  such  vpin  were  they  accus¬ 
tomed  to  be  addressed,  and  the  neuremic  espionage 
that  sustained  the  existing  order  seems  to  have  been 
quick  to  notice  the  novelty.  He  had  been  careful  to 
declare  with  due  emphasis  his  loyalty;  but  in  every 
autocracy  the  uneasy  governing  class  learns  first  of 
all  to  discount  such  professions.  The  poem  added  to 
the  disfavor  in  which  the  official  world  held  him;  his 
aloofness  and  studious  habits  seem  to  have  multiplied 
suspicion.  A  youth  with  such  sentiments  and  such 
ways  must  be  thinking  mischief;  devilish  plottings 
were  irresistibly  suggested.  So,  then,  the  blacker  the 
mark  against  his  name !  The  press  of  Manila,  all  cen¬ 
sored,  all  edited  in  behalf  of  the  rulers,  seems  to  have 
learned  early  of  this  proscription.  In  the  stealthy 
way  of  the  journalistic  prostitute  it  was  already  giving 
Rizal  warning.2 

There  were  other  things  in  his  habits  not  calculated 
to  give  pleasurable  sensations  to  sedulous  supporters 
of  things  as  they  were.  From  the  beginning  of  his 
career  at  the  Ateneo  he  had  taken  the  position  that 
the  Filipino  boys  were  not  to  serve  as  door-mats  and 

1  See  Appendix  A. 

2  Craig,  p.  109. 


72 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


punching-bags  for  their  Spanish  fellow-students.  He 
had  the  courage  to  insist  upon  this  principle  at  what¬ 
ever  cost,  which  was  often  the  breaking  of  his  own 
head.  In  all  years  and  all  conditions  it  is  character 
that  determines ;  naturally  he  became  the  leader  of  the 
Filipinos  in  all  these  encounters  and  led  them  without 
flinching.  The  recluse  came  from  his  cell  at  the  sound 
of  battle;  the  student  threw  aside  schedule  and  book. 
He  had  grown  at  the  Ateneo;  he  was  no  longer  a 
midget ;  and,  having  kept  up  his  exercises  with  the  rest 
of  his  regimen,  he  could  hit  hard  and  take  punishment. 
One  side  or  the  other  was  driven  off  the  field ;  he  con¬ 
trived  to  make  the  retreat  a  rout  if  victory  sat  upon 
his  banners.  “Sir,  you  have  wrestled  well,  and  over¬ 
thrown  more  than  your  enemies.”  One  of  these  con¬ 
flicts  had,  as  you  are  presently  to  learn,  results  that 
he  had  never  counted  upon ;  among  them  another 
shadow  on  a  life  already  troubled  enough. 

On  March  23,  1876,  he  received  the  degree  of  bach¬ 
elor  of  arts  with  the  highest  honors  from  the  Ateneo, 
and  in  April,  1877, 1  matriculated  at  the  ancient  uni¬ 
versity  of  Santo  Tomas.2  Some  of  his  studies  he 
continued  to  pursue  at  the  Ateneo,  which  he  always 
preferred.  The  choice  of  a  career  still  weighed  upon 
him ;  in  what  way  of  life,  business  or  profession,  could 
he  fit  best  and  furnish  the  most  help!  He  looked  upon 
the  fertile  soil  of  the  Islands,  he  looked  upon  the  medi¬ 
eval  methods  of  cultivation  in  use  there,  and  he  half 
resolved  to  be  a  scientific  farmer  and  show  the  wonders 


1  It  was  founded  in  1603,  only  thirty -three  years  after  the  capture  of 
Manila  and  the  beginning  of  the  Spanish  domination. 

2  JR-etana, 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  73 


of  which  the  soil  was  capable.  He  looked  upon  the 
general  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  health  among  his  peo¬ 
ple  and  in  the  end  determined  to  be  a  physician,  choos¬ 
ing  diseases  of  the  eye  to  be  his  specialty.  Oculists 
were  almost  unknown  in  the  islands,  even  poor  ones; 
and  diseases  of  the  eye  were  wide-spread  there  as  in  all 
tropical  countries.  Every  year  many  Filipinos  went 
blind  whose  sight  science  might  easily  have  saved. 
For  lack  of  competent  treatment  his  own  mother  was 
likely  to  share  this  dread  calamity. 

To  the  profession  he  had  chosen  he  surrendered 
nothing  of  his  addiction  to  the  arts ;  he  modeled, 
painted,  drew,  and  sang  as  before.  Without  yielding 
to  the  extravagant  eulogy  that  has  attended  his  fame 
in  recent  years,  it  appears  certain  that  he  was  in  art 
one  of  those  rare  creatures  that  are  endowed  at  once 
with  two  great  faculties.  He  could  create  and  he  could 
analyze;  he  could  feel  and  he  could  reason;  and  on 
either  side  his  activities  could  be  carried  on  with  the 
same  native  ease. 

About  the  time  he  was  entering  Santo  Tomas  the 
Lyceum  staged  another  poetic  tourney,  this  time  to 
celebrate  the  glory  of  Cervantes.  Rizal  was  a  com¬ 
petitor  with  an  allegory  called  “The  Council  of 
the  Gods,’’  in  which  he  developed  a  critical  exposition 
of  Cervantes  and  his  art,  lucid,  just,  and  competent; 
as  remarkable  a  production  as  the  imaginative  part 
of  his  work.  The  awarding  of  the  prizes  in  this  com¬ 
petition  resulted  in  a  painful  incident  that  took  its 
place  in  the  chain  of  fateful  things  now  drawing  him 
away.  Mystery  surrounds  the  facts  and  always  will, 
but  it  appears  that  the  competitors  entered  the  lists 


i 


74 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


with  assumed  names,  and  that  Rizal  won  the  first  prize ; 
but  when  he  was  discovered  to  be  a  Filipino  the  laurel 
was  taken  from  him  and  bestowed  upon  a  Spaniard.1 
It  was  a  slash  in  the  old  wound;  not  even  in  that 
domain  of  art,  supposed  to  have  shut  doors  upon  the 
prejudices  of  nation  and  birth,  was  the  Filipino  to  be 
allowed  to  forget  his  inferiority.  His  fellows  at  the 
Ateneo  felt  that  he  had  been  wronged,  and  knowledge 
of  the  general  resentment  took  nothing  from  the  ill  will 
with  which  he  was  viewed  by  the  governing  class.  In 
all  lands  it  is  the  fate  of  the  foreign  colony  to  be 
swayed  by  puerile  emotions ;  among  these  in  the  Span¬ 
ish  colony  of  Manila  suspicion  led  all  the  rest. 

Meantime  his  fate  was  crying  out  to  him  in  strange 
voices  that  led  him,  before  he  was  aware,  into  the  road 
from  the  Philippines.  At  the  Ateneo  the  students  were 
fond  of  enacting  plays  of  their  own  devising.  Rizal 
was  poet  and  dramatist;  here  was  the  plain  call  to 
his  favorite  pursuit.  He  wrote  for  his  fellows  a 
metrical  drama  called  “Beside  the  Pasig,’ ’  and  on 
December  8,  1880,  it  was  publicly  performed  by  one  of 
the  student  societies.  Courage  he  had  never  lacked, 
the  courage  of  a  mind  too  reasonable  to  be  deluded  by 
fear.  He  showed  now  what  he  had  in  his  heart.  One  of 
the  characters  in  his  drama  was  the  devil  himself. 
Into  the  mouth  of  Sathanas  he  put  (with  a  dazzling 
audacity)  a  sentence  denouncing  Spain  and  her  policy 
toward  the  Philippines. 

There  are  single  colorations  of  character  that  some¬ 
times  reveal  and  illuminate  the  whole  man.  This  was 
one  of  them.  Disclosed  here  was  a  certain  precise, 

1  Craig,  p.  109;  Retana,  pp.  34-35. 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  75 


firm  touch  of  workmanship  as  typical  as  was  the  pluck 
demanded  to  say  such  a  thing.  The  perfect  barbing 
of  the  satirical  arrow  no  Philippine  audience  could 
miss ;  Spain  so  bad  that  the  devil  himself  con¬ 
demned  her!  Nothing  could  be  more  poisonous.  But 
among  the  persons  whose  attention  was  enchained  by 
the  daring  flight  of  fancy  were  members  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment’s  secret  service.  To  keep  watch  against  such 
young  enthusiasts  tempted  to  raillery  upon  the  exist¬ 
ing  order  was  a  chief  point  in  their  varied  and  malign 
industry,  and  in  this  instance  the  author  of  these 
burning  thoughts  was  no  stranger  to  them.  Even  if 
the  bold  iconoclast  had  never  shocked  right-minded 
people  by  calling  the  Philippines  his  fatherland,  he 
must  have  been  from  the  first  an  object  of  suspicion  to 
the  souls  that  could  find  sedition  in  the  drooping  of  an 
eyebrow.  Brother  of  Paciano  Rizal,  son  of  Francisco 
Rizal  Mercado,  should  aught  but  evil  come  of  that 
stock?  To  these  ferrets,  his  outbreaks  in  verse  must 
have  been  no  more  than  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy. 

Then,  again,  Rizal  did  not  like  Santo  Tomas.  He 
was  galled  to  think  that  its  methods  of  instruction 
lagged  behind  those  of  the  Ateneo,  which  it  should  have 
led.  He  knew  well  enough  that  the  cold  frown  of  hos¬ 
tility  was  turned  upon  him  by  the  friar  professors. 
Santo  Tomas  was  Dominican;  the  Ateneo  was  Jesuit. 
In  RizaPs  case  jealousy  between  the  two  orders  was 
added  to  the  heavy  handicap  he  must  pay  as  a  reputed 
insurgent  against  the  System.  The  Jesuits  had  sent 
forth  this  prize-winning  prodigy.  Logically,  then,  the 
other  orders  were  constrained  to  sniff  ai  him. 

He  had  other  encounters  with  the  System  that  in 


76 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


so  many  and  diverse  ways  wearied  his  people.  One 
night  when  he  was  visiting  his  mother  at  Calamba 
he  came,  half  blinded,  out  of  the  lighted  house  into  the 
darkness  of  the  street  and  dimly  perceived  passing 
him  the  figure  of  a  man.  Not  knowing  who  or  what  it 
was,  Rizal  said  nothing  and  made  no  movement.  With 
a  snarl,  the  figure  turned  upon  him,  whipped  out  a 
sword,  and  slashed  him  across  the  back.  It  was  a 
Civil  Guard — so  called.  Rizal  ’s  duty  as  a  Filipino 
under  the  barbarous  code  of  the  times  was  to  make  a 
salute  whenever  he  might  see  one  of  these  strutting 
persons.  Spaniards  need  not  salute;  only  Filipinos. 
If  he  had  known  that  this  was  one  of  the  precious 
police  Rizal  would  have  performed  the  important 
ceremony  and  so  fulfilled  his  obligation  to  king  and 
country.  As  in  the  dark  the  policeman  looked  like 
anybody  else  he  thought  it  hard  to  be  wounded  for 
not  possessing  the  vision  of  a  cat.  The  injury  was 
painful  but  not  serious.  When  he  recovered,  he 
deemed  it  his  duty  to  report  to  the  authorities  what 
had  occurred.  Jeering  indifference  was  all  his  reward. 
An  Indio  had  no  rights  that  a  Civil  Guard  was  bound 
to  respect,  and  instead  of  complaining  Rizal  should  be 
offering  thanks  that  the  offended  soldier  had  not  taken 
his  life. 

All  these  experiences  must  have  weighed  together, 
but  it  was  the  political  aspect  of  his  plight,  no  doubt, 
that  decided  him.  He  had  set  out  in  life  resolved  to 
win  the  best  education  his  times  and  his  means  might 
allow;  for  himself  and  more,  for  his  cause  much 
greater  than  himself.  He  now  began  to  see  that  in  his 
country,  and  even  because  of  his  love  for  it,  he  would 


FIRST  CONTACTS  WITH  THE  ENEMY  77 


be  debarred  from  the  knowledge  and  training  he  de¬ 
sired  for  its  sake.  Often  the  sage  old  counselors  had 
told  him  to  look  abroad  for  that  training,  not  at  home. 
Most  Filipinos  that  had  won  any  eminence  had  first 
escaped  from  the  evil  environment  of  their  nativity. 
So  long  as  he  could  he  resisted  these  arguments.  The 
lost  prize  seems  to  have  completed  the  business  for 
him.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  get  the  rest  of  his 
education  abroad. 

To  go  was  not  so  easy  as  to  dream  of  going.  He 
must  have  a  passport,  and  of  all  men  in  Manila  he  was 
the  last  to  which  the  Government  would  allow  that  or 
any  other  favor;  the  patriot  poet,  the  singer  of  the 
“fatherland,’ ’  the  critic  of  Spain,  suspected  of  sowing 
treason  in  the  minds  of  youths  at  best  none  too  docile. 
Through  the  help  of  a  cousin  and  his  own  ingenuity, 
he  evaded  this  difficulty  and  all  others.  The  cousin 
got  a  passport  in  another  name.  Paciano  and  an  uncle 
supplied  funds ; 1  a  sister  gave  him  a  diamond  ring  to 
pawn.  To  outwit  official  suspicion,  Jose  went  to  Ca- 
lamba  ostensibly  to  visit  his  family,  and  really  to  wait 
until  a  vessel  should  be  ready  to  sail.  A  cryptic  tele¬ 
gram  gave  him  the  warning.  He  slipped  into  Manila 
and  after  midnight  stole  aboard  his  steamer.  When 
day  broke  he  was  well  on  his  way  to  Singapore.2 

1  His  father ’s  sore  difficulties,  to  be  described  later,  were  then  begin¬ 
ning.  Mr.  Mercado  continued  to  send  money  regularly  to  Jos6  through 
Mr.  Rivera,  the  detour  being  necessary  to  protect  himself. 

3  Craig,  p.  Ill ;  Retana,  pp.  56  and  57. 


CHAPTER  IV 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 

WHAT  life  meant  for  average  millions  in  the 
Philippines,  under  what  chill  shadows  of  the 
jail  and  visions  of  the  tiring-squad  they  must  draw 
breath,  how  shifty  and  blackguard  was  the  Govern¬ 
ment  imposed  upon  them,  we  may  glimpse  from  what 
happened  as  soon  as  RizaPs  absence  was  discovered. 
Civil  Guards  and  official  eavesdroppers  were  busy  at 
Calamba;  all  members  of  the  family  were  dogged, 
watched,  waylaid,  and  cross-questioned  as  if  suspected 
of  murder.  They  must  do  more  than  lie  to  protect 
themselves.  Paciano,  the  brother,  who  had  been  a 
confidant  in  this  desperate  plot  to  take  ship  and  go, 
was  reduced  to  a  kind  of  play-acting,  running  about 
RizaPs  lodging  and  inquiring  frantically  for  his  lost 
brother  as  if  he  conjectured  suicide,  assassination,  or 
kidnapping.  All  the  Government  seems  to  have  been 
thrown  into  chill  alarm  by  the  fact  that  one  college 
student,  not  yet  of  age,  had  left  Manila  without  its 
permission.  If  there  has  been  upon  this  earth  a 
tyranny  that  existed  without  the  finger  of  fear  upon  it 
history,  surely,  has  no  mention  of  it,  and  in  the  case 
of  the  Spanish  tyranny  in  the  Philippines  the  vague 
and  kindergarten  terrors  that  assailed  it  had  long 
been  notorious.  To  be  afraid  of  a  solitary  student 

whose  most  dangerous  manifestation  had  been  a  taste 

78 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


79 


for  radical  poetry  may  seem  fantastical  to  steadier 
pulses  but  was  real  enough  to  the  anxious  souls  that 
then  steered  Spain’s  sovereignty  through  unquiet 
waters.  In  due  time  the  fact  could  no  longer  he  con¬ 
cealed;  gone  he  had  indeed  and  in  very  truth — gone, 
quite  gone.  Then,  in  characteristic  fashion,  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  proceeded  to  revenge  itself  upon  the  fugi¬ 
tive’s  relatives.  It  was  again  a  case  of  a  second  cousin 
where  the  offender  or  his  brother  was  not  available. 
In  vengeance  the  taste  of  the  Government  was  never 
overnice.  To  make  somebody  suffer  was  its  length 
and  breadth,  and  not  too  much  haggling  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  victim. 

Sketch-book  in  hand,  the  cause  and  occasion  of 
all  this  uproar  pursued  his  way  in  peace,  recording 
types  among  his  fellow-passengers  and  sopping  up 
information  like  some  form  of  sponge.  From  Singa¬ 
pore  he  journeyed  by  French  mail-boat  through  the 
Suez  Canal  to  Marseilles,  and  so  to  Barcelona.  There 
he  tarried  some  months  and  observed  without  infec¬ 
tion  the  extreme  revolutionary  movement  that  cen¬ 
tered  always  in  that  restless  city.1  Many  Filipinos 
were  in  Barcelona  ;  it  was  passing  strange  to  one  late 
escaped  from  the  gag-law  and  press-gang  conditions 
of  the  Philippines  to  a  place  under  the  same  flag  where 
men  could  say  and  print  what  they  thought.  There 
were  publications  in  Barcelona  that  in  the  Philippines 
would  have  brought  out  the  executioner  and  added 
martyrs  to  the  overcharged  lists  of  Bagumbayan  Field. 
The  Socratic  mind  of  Rizal,  with  a  question  for  every 
phenomenon,  could  not  fail  to  note  this  nor  to  find  the 

1  Craig,  p.  117;  Retana,  p.  59;  Derbyshire,  p.  xxvii. 


80 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


cause  of  it.  Government  loved  freedom  of  speech  no 
better  in  Barcelona  than  in  Manila.  But  in  Barcelona 
the  people  were  ready  to  fight  for  their  rights  as  they 
had  fought  for  them  more  than  once.  In  this  fact  lay 
all  the  contrast. 

At  the  University  of  Madrid,  where  he  came  soon 
after  to  anchor,  he  elected  to  study  medicine,  litera¬ 
ture,  and  philosophy,  while  outside  the  university  he 
took  on  art  and  modem  languages.  The  burden  of  so 
many  studies  was  less  than  its  appalling  appearance, 
or  less  for  Rizal.  With  him,  as  with  other  good  minds 
reared  in  a  bilingual  atmosphere,  languages  were  an 
easy  acquisition.  In  his  childhood  he  had  spoken 
Tagalog  and  Spanish;  at  school  he  had  added  Latin 
and  Greek ;  after  the  school  of  the  pedant,  to  be 
sure,  but  still  Latin  and  Greek.  He  now  assailed 
French,  English,  and  Italian,  all  at  the  same  time,  and 
without  apparent  difficulty.  A  little  later,  he  mastered 
Catalan,  Arabic,  German,  Sanskrit,  and  Hebrew. 

At  Madrid  it  was  with  him  as  it  had  been  at  the 
Ateneo.  In  a  few  weeks  the  university  buzzed  about 
this  rare  young  Filipino  that  could  do  so  many  things 
brilliantly  and  lived  so  much  like  a  Trappist  monk. 
His  fellows  remarked  of  him  that  he  had  at  its  best  the 
fine,  gracious  courtesy  characteristic  of  his  people  but 
was  no  great  addition  to  the  university’s  social  assets. 
If  the  cafes,  clubs,  and  other  places  the  students 
thronged  knew  little  of  him,  he  had  two  good  reasons 
for  keeping  to  himself  and  living  modestly.  His  excur¬ 
sion  in  higher  education  was  financed  on  slender  terms 
by  his  father  and  his  brother,  and  he  had  work  in  hand 
that  took  all  his  attention;  he  must  be  at  all  times 


LEAVES  FROM  RIZAl’s  TRAVEL  NOTES  AND  SKETCHES  THROUGH  EUROPE 

At  the  left  a  sketch  of  the  statue  of  Voltaire 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


81 


about  his  country’s  business.  To  a  certain  extent 
when  he  walked  apart  he  was  doing  violence  to  his  own 
nature.  By  temperament  he  was  no  horseman  for 
black  care  to  ride  behind.  He  was  frank,  cordial, 
quick,  rather  sanguine,  and  appreciative  of  good  com¬ 
pany  and  of  conversation  with  good  minds.  When  he 
had  the  luck  to  fall  in  with  these  and  loosened  the  rein 
upon  himself,  or  when  he  was  with  his  own  circle  and 
forgot  the  great  thing  he  lived  for,  he  made  the  com¬ 
mon  air  sparkle  with  shrewd,  witty  comment.1  His 
studies  in  so  many  languages  had  given  him  an  unusual 
vocabulary ;  his  talk  flowed  on  without  a  break. 

His  own  circle  was  a  group  of  about  a  score  of  Fil¬ 
ipino  students,  and  (strange  to  say)  one  Englishman 
and  one  German,  that  somehow  found  themselves  to 
be  congenial  and  elected  to  meet  at  one  remote  cafe. 
There  they  read  the  newspapers  (London),  played 
dominoes  and  chess,  and  talked  about  serious  things. 
It  was  the  opinion  of  these  young  men  that  Rizal  came 
too  seldom  to  their  meetings,  but  whenever  he  con¬ 
sented  to  be  of  the  company  he  was  its  intellectual 
electric  battery.  He  liked  to  play  ehess  and  played  it 
well;  he  liked  better  to  discuss  and  to  learn.  One 
afternoon  he  came  in  and  announced  that  he  was  going 
away.  He  sat  by  the  side  of  the  table  and  drew  with 
his  pencil  on  its  bare  top  a  merry  caricature  of  every 
person  present.  Then  he  bade  them  good-bye  and  dis¬ 
appeared,  and  a  waiter  came  with  a  cloth  dipped  in 

1  While  he  was  in  the  Philippines  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  return 
there,  1887,  he  had  with  him  a  considerable  collection  of  books  in  many 
languages  but  scarcely  any  in  Spanish.  A  friend  once  called  his  atten¬ 
tion  to  this  fact  and  asked  why  he  omitted  Spanish  books.  “Well,” 
said  Rizal,  in  his  quiet  way  but  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eyes,  “if  they 
can’t  read  them  they  will  not  borrow  them,  will  they?” 


r 


82  THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 

kerosene  and  erased  the  drawings.  The  place  did  not 
see  him  again.1  A  few  years  later,  the  price  of  those 
caricatures  the  waiter  so  easily  expunged  would  have 
equaled  the  value  of  the  cafe. 

He  carried  to  Madrid  his  favorite  notion  of  life  led 
by  time-tables;  and,  dividing  his  day  into  segments, 
set  apart  one  for  general  reading.  In  this  his  choice 
was  liberal ;  anything  that  would  be  likely  to  assist  his 
purpose  was  welcome.  French  classics,  Shakespeare, 
Goethe,  to  help  his  lingual  studies;  books  on  modern 
political  questions ;  history  above  everything,  any  his¬ 
tory  ;  biography  by  way  of  illustration ;  and  the  theater 
(which  he  attended  as  often  as  his  purse  would  allow) 
for  readjustment. 

A  book  that  early  captivated  him  was  a  volume  of 
the  lives  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
printed  in  Spain  and  in  Spanish.2  It  seems  to  have 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  him ;  he  all  but  wore  it 
out  with  frequent  thumbings,  and  procured  another 
edition  with  later  biographies  that  he  carried  with  him 
wherever  he  went.  These  stories  of  so  many  pictur¬ 
esque  careers  to  eminence  must  have  had  an  apt  rela¬ 
tion  to  Jagor’s  prophecy,  a  thing  he  never  forgot. 
The  application  was  too  obvious  to  escape  such  a  mind. 
In  a  democracy,  men  born  into  the  utmost  poverty, 
men  bom  in  log  huts,  the  sons  of  peasants,  the  sons  of 
artisans,  made  their  way  to  the  highest  positions,  and 
not  a  soul  cast  their  birth  at  them.  It  was  so;  here 
were  the  recorded  proofs.  Under  the  old  monarchical 
system  of  society  they  would  have  found  every  door 

'Fernando  Canon,  Manila  1  * Citizen, *’  December  31,  1921. 

*  Craig,  p.  99. 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


83 


shut  in  their  faces  and  a  thousand  chains  of  caste  to 
hold  them  in  the  pit  where  they  had  been  born.  In  a 
democracy  every  door  stood  open  and  nothing  impeded 
their  ascent.  Why  does  anybody  write  fiction  when 
fact  is  so  much  more  dramatic  and  wonderful?  In  a 
student’s  cell  in  a  back  comer  of  Madrid  was  then 
being  forged  the  wedge  of  brass  that  was  to  over¬ 
throw  moldering  antiquity  in  all  the  Pacific  and  all 
the  Far  East,  and  was  so  far  hidden  from  the  wise  and 
prudent  of  earth  they  would  have  laughed  at  the  mere 
suggestion  of  it.  Yet  there  it  was,  day  and  night — 
forging.  Well  could  Prophet  Jagor  see  what  was  to 
happen  but  not  the  manner  of  it.  He  knew  that  in  the 
end  it  was  the  United  States  that  would  remake  the 
Philippines,  even  if  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  American 
people  in  general  were  so  little  acquainted  with  this 
part  of  the  sun’s  dominions  that  to  many  of  them 
Filipino  suggested  only  something  to  eat;  even  if  he 
never  dreamed  that  the  instrument  Fate  would  use  in 
strange  ways  to  bring  all  this  to  pass  was  in  the  hand 
of  a  slim  brown  youth  naturally  addicted  to  poetry 
and  mooning. 

While  he  was  yet  in  the  university,  Rizal  came  into 
contact  with  another  influence  that  affected  both  his 
career  and  the  story  of  his  country.  He  became  a 
freemason.  Upon  all  secret  societies,  but  especially 
upon  the  freemasons,  the  governing  class  in  the  Phil¬ 
ippines  had  scowled  implacably;  the  friars  and  the 
church  generally  being  still  more  hostile.  The  govern¬ 
ing  class  in  its  jumpy  way  believed  that  any  kind  of 
secret  organization  must  signify  treason;  the  Civil 
Guards  objected  because  here  were  keyholes  at  which 


84 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


one  could  not  watch;  the  friars  thought  freemasonry 
threatened  the  economic  welfare  of  the  church.  By 
these,  Rizal’s  religious  convictions  were  gravely 
doubted,  but  need  not  have  been  since  they  were  easily 
ascertained.  He  was  of  a  broad  and  sweet  faith  and  a 
charitable  practice,  cherishing  a  universal  tolerance 
refreshing  to  encounter,  but  he  was  in  the  substance  of 
his  belief  a  loyal  Catholic.  In  his  father’s  house  he 
had  been  accustomed  to  hear  religious  questions  dis¬ 
cussed  without  the  least  restraint ; 1  within  those  walls 
Francisco  Mercado  would  have  freedom  of  speech  if  it 
existed  nowhere  else  in  Filipinas.  From  such  discus¬ 
sions  he  had  learned  that  religion  was  a  matter  about 
which  men  would  differ  widely  and  yet  without  just 
reproach;  the  independent,  courageous,  and  conscien¬ 
tious  man  would  decide  for  himself.  When  he  came  to 
understand  the  subjugation  of  his  country  and  the  part 
played  in  that  great  wrong  by  the  monastic  orders  his 
faith  in  the  organized  church  as  the  custodian  of  men’s 
minds  and  thinkings  faded  out,  but  not  his  faith 
in  the  essentials  of  the  Christian  religion,  from  which 
he  seems  never  to  have  wandered. 

At  the  suggestion  that  freemasonry  was  or  could  be 
a  foe  to  religion  he  scoffed.  Not  only  did  he  accept 
masonry  for  himself  but  he  resolved  that  upon  his 
return  to  the  Philippines  he  would  further  it  among 
his  countrymen.  He  may  have  loved  it  for  the  enemies 
it  had  made ;  he  would  have  been  scarcely  human  if  he 
had  not  felt  some  such  impulse.  But  beyond  all  such 
considerations  he  must  have  found  in  the  ritual  some¬ 
thing  of  beauty  and  in  the  associations  something  of 

1  Craig,  p.  76. 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


85 


the  calm  and  fortitude  for  which  the  sorely  tried  soul 
yearned  within  him.  We  are  to  remember  here  again 
that  he  was  one  carried  by  fate  and  the  stress  of  con¬ 
ditions  out  of  his  inclinings.  He  had  the  soul  of  an 
artist ;  by  sheer  force  of  will  he  put  himself  down  into 
an  arena  of  strife.  He  loved  the  cloister,  books,  and 
meditation;  he  forced  himself  to  battle  with  primitive 
men  for  primitive  rights.  He  was  a  poet,  with  an  ear 
peculiarly  sensitive  to  sweet  sounds,  a  soul  on  fire 
about  beauty  and  its  recompenses;  and  he  turned  his 
back  upon  all  these  because  he  thought  he  heard  a  call 
to  duty.  Some  men  give  their  lives  to  a  great  cause; 
some  men  give  still  more. 

To  reinforce  the  pittance  his  uncle  was  able  to  send 
him  he  earned  money  by  tutoring,  though  to  work 
one’s  way  through  a  university  was  not  so  easy  nor 
so  common  at  Madrid  as  we  know  it  in  America.  He 
seems  to  have  been  a  fairly  human  kind  of  instructor. 
According  to  a  letter  from  one  of  his  class  in  German 
he  showed  an  exceedingly  human  impatience  when  his 
pupils  failed  to  grasp  his  ideas  as  rapidly  as  he  uttered 
them.1 

Throughout  all  his  studies  he  performed  better  in 
languages,  history,  and  belles  lettres  than  in  medicine ; 
conclusive  proof  that  he  had  not  followed  his  own 
desires  but  made  a  sacrifice  of  them  when  he  chose  this 
profession.  We  have  here  his  school  ratings  from 
1878  in  Manila  until  the  time  he  left  Madrid  Univer¬ 
sity;  they  offer  material  for  an  interesting  mental 
clinic  if  one  cares  to  undertake  the  exercise: 


1  Senator  Sandiko  ’s  recollections. 


86  THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 

SCHOLASTIC  RECORDS  OF  JOSE  RIZAL 

Studies  in  Medicine 

In  Manila:  First  Year  (1878-79) 

Physics — Fair 
Chemistry — Excellent 
Natural  history — Fair 
Anatomy  No.  1 — Good 
Dissection  No.  1 — Good 

Second  Year  (1879-80) 

Anatomy  No.  2 — Good 
Dissection  No.  2 — Good 
Physiology — Good 
Private  hygiene — Good 
Public  hygiene — Good 

Third  Year  (1880-81) 

Pathology,  general — Fair 
Therapeutics — Excellent 
Operation  (surgery) — Good 

Fourth  Year  (1881-82) 

Pathology,  medical — Very  good 
Pathology,  surgical — Very  good 
Obstetrics — Very  good 

In  Madrid,  Spain:  Fifth  Year  (1882-83) 

Medical  clinics  No.  1 — Good 

Surgical  clinics  No.  1 — Good 

Obstetrical  clinics — Fair 

Legal  medicine  or  medical  law — Excellent 

Sixth  Year  (1883-84) 

Medical  clinics  No.  2 — Good 
Surgical  clinics  No.  2 — Very  good 

He  became  licentiate  in  medicine  on  June  21,  1884,  with 
the  rating  “fair”  (aprobado)  (degree  granted  June  1, 
1887). 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


87 


He  obtained  the  doctor’s  degree  (1884-85)  : 

History  of  the  medical  science — Fair 
Chemical  analysis — Good 
Histology,  normal — Excellent 

Studies  in  Philosophy  and  Letters 
In  Manila,  March  14,  1877,  he  obtained  the  bachelor’s  de¬ 
gree  with  the  rating  “excellent” 

In  Madrid,  1882-83 : 

Universal  history — Very  good 
General  literature — Excellent 

1883- 84 

Universal  history  No.  2 — Excellent 

Greek  and  Latin  literature — Excellent  with  a  prize 

Greek  No.  1 — Excellent  with  a  prize 

1884- 85 

Spanish  literature — Excellent  with  free  scholarship 
Arabic  language — Excellent  with  free  scholarship 

Greek  No.  2 — Excellent 
History  of  Spain — Good 
Hebrew — Excellent 

Cosmology,  metaphysics,  theodicy,  and  history  of  phi¬ 
losophy  were  studied  by  him  in  Manila  and  finished  in 
July,  1877,  and  March,  1878,  with  rating  “excellent” 
Licentiate  in  philosophy  and  letters,  June  19,  1885,  “ex¬ 
cellent.  ’  ’ 

Three  years  elapsed  between  the  bestowing  of  his 
licentiate  in  medicine  and  the  taking  of  his  degree. 
The  lapse  was  never  explained  by  Rizal,  but  the  reason 
was  his  poverty.  His  father  was  now  in  much  dis¬ 
tress,  and  Rizal  to  prosecute  his  studies  must  live  with 
narrow  scrimping  and  sometimes  on  crusts.  He  could 
not  afford  to  pay  the  fee  for  his  doctor’s  degree  and 
went  without  it  until  his  fortunes  mended. 


88 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


But  his  record  of  triumphs  in  philosophy  and  letters 
must  have  balanced  all  possible  regrets  for  the  lack  of 
this  laurel  while  it  added  to  his  great  fame  in  the  stu¬ 
dent  world.  So  many  scholarships,  honors,  mentions, 
“excellents” ! — these  were  the  prizes  he  had  won  with 
so  much  industry.  The  plan  of  his  career  he  had  now 
worked  out  to  his  satisfaction:  he  was  to  visit  the 
foremost  countries  of  Europe,  study  their  institutions, 
learn  the  secrets  of  their  progress,  and  carry  home  to 
his  countrymen  information  that  might  spur  them  to 
cast  off  their  lethargy  and  emerge  from  the  national 
eclipse.  Meantime,  he  was  to  perfect  himself  in  his 
profession  that  he  might  add  to  his  usefulness  and  take 
up  his  work  among  them.  From  Madrid,  therefore, 
he  went  to  Paris,  where  he  became  clinical  assistant 
to  Dr.  L.  de  Weckert,  one  of  the  most  famous  oculists 
of  Europe.1 

It  was  in  Paris  that  he  took  the  first  direct  steps  to 
his  own  ruin.  While  still  in  Madrid  he  had  come  upon 
the  idea  of  addressing  his  countrymen  through  the 
medium  of  a  novel.  He  had  been  reading  and  study¬ 
ing  Mrs.  Stowe’s  “ Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin,”  and  he  pon¬ 
dered  with  awe  the  far-reaching  effect  upon  history 
and  human  progress  of  that  inspired  work.  The 
thought  occurred  to  him  that  similarly  wrought  pic¬ 
tures  of  the  servitude  of  the  Filipinos  might  awaken 
them  to  a  knowledge  of  the  yoke  that  was  slowly 
crushing  them,  pictures  that  might  at  the  same  time 
reveal  to  the  world  the  justice  of  the  Filipino  cause. 
He  went  so  far  as  to  suggest  such  a  work  to  the  Fil¬ 
ipino  club  at  Madrid,  the  story  to  be  of  joint  author- 

1  Betana,  p.  99. 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


89 


ship;  for  he  seems  to  have  had  doubts  of  his  own 
ability.  When  his  fellow-members  failed  to  see  how 
great  were  the  opportunities  involved  he  was  driven 
back  upon  himself,  as  he  so  often  had  been  and  was 
to  be.  From  Madrid  to  Paris  the  idea  grew  upon  him. 
At  Paris  he  took  his  pen  and  started  seriously  upon 
the  composition  of  a  story  of  Philippine  life. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere,”  the 
greatest  work  in  Philippine  literature  and  one  of  the 
great  achievements  of  all  times  and  all  lands.  He  was 
not  perfectly  equipped  to  be  a  novelist,  for  he  had  not 
the  great  dramatic  fictional  sense  that  sees  a  moving 
tale  in  the  large  and  coordinates  to  the  catastrophe 
every  incident  as  the  plot  unfolds;  but  he  had  assets 
many  dramatic  fictionists  never  possess.  He  had  the 
compelling  fire  of  a  lofty  indignation,  the  sense  of  a 
great  cause,  the  faultless  knowledge  of  the  hearts  and 
minds  and  sorrows  of  the  people  of  his  little  stage. 
He  had  something  else  that  put  him  in  a  class  with 
Dickens,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  and  William  Dean 
Howells.  He  was  a  great  reporter.  Nature  had  gifted 
him  with  a  marvelous  power  of  observation ;  as  truly 
as  with  his  pencil  he  made  those  startling  and  hardly 
surpassed  sketches  of  men  and  things,  so  accurately 
his  mind  seized  and  stored  the  significance  of  inci¬ 
dents,  conversations,  petty  broils,  clashing  ambitions, 
village  tyrants,  unsung  Hampdens,  and  cities  of  men 
and  manners. 

He  wrote  in  Paris  the  opening  chapters  of  “Noli 
Me  Tangere”  and  carried  them  to  Heidelberg,  where 
the  next  year  he  was  a  student  at  the  university.1 

1  Craig,  p.  126;  Retana,  pp.  103-105. 


90 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


By  this  time  he  had  begun  to  attract  the  attention 
of  scientists  for  zealot-like  devotion  to  his  scientific 
research.  At  Madrid,  Paris,  Heidelberg,  he  was  first 
the  student  and  then  the  close  friend  and  coadjutor 
of  the  foremost  oculists  of  that  time.  It  appears  that 
upon  his  capacity  and  powers  of  concentration,  which 
were  extraordinary,  they  founded  large  hopes  of  a 
brilliant  professional  career.  Despite  his  preoccupa¬ 
tion  and  his  aloofness,  it  is  equally  apparent  that  he 
exercised  upon  them  the  charm  of  a  singularly  mag¬ 
netic  manner.  Readily  he  made  friends;  as  easily  he 
kept  them.  To  the  end  of  his  life  some  of  the  greatest 
scientists  in  Europe,  men  like  Virchow,  Jagor,  Blu- 
mentritt,  and  de  Weckert  held  him  in  affectionate 
esteem  and  delighted  to  correspond  with  him. 

They  had  sound  human  reasons  for  liking  him.  In 
addition  to  so  liberal  a  store  of  other  good  gifts,  this 
man  was  a  master  of  the  now  rare  art  of  letter-writing. 
To  the  family  at  home  he  sent  the  most  charming 
epistles,  full  of  shrewd  observations,  colorful  descrip¬ 
tions,  and  a  cheerful  wit.  Often  they  were  illustrated 
with  his  incomparable  thumb-nail  drawings  and  humor¬ 
ous  designs,  and  sometimes  when  he  wrote  to  his 
mother  he  sent  her  the  latest  poems  on  which  he  had 
been  engrossed.1 

From  Heidelberg  he  went  to  Leipzig  and  its  univer¬ 
sity,  studying,  in  especial,  psychology;  thence  to  Ber¬ 
lin,  where  he  took  cheap  lodgings  and  settled  himself 
to  complete  his  novel  while  he  should  still  pursue  his 

1  For  example,  1 1  The  Flowers  of  Heidelberg,  ’  ’  printed  in  ‘  ‘  La  Soli- 
daridad, ’ 7  December  15,  1889. 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


91 


studies ;  for  besides  his  specialties  he  had  lately  taken 
on  anthropology  and  entomology. 

His  association  with  Virchow  enlarged  and  enlight¬ 
ened  his  views  concerning  democracy  and  overcame 
much  of  the  grave  disadvantages  of  his  birth.  Men 
bom  under  a  monarchy  have  always  this  to  overcome 
if  they  are  to  become  effective  soldiers  of  the  Common 
Good.  Virchow  was  a  philosophical  democrat  that  had 
seen,  as  in  a  long  perspective,  the  ascent  of  man  and 
had  drawn  thence  an  unshakable  faith.  Although 
Rizal  was  now  more  than  ever  a  democrat,  on  calmly 
reviewing  the  state  of  his  countrymen  he  believed  that 
for  his  day  the  national  independence  of  the  Philip¬ 
pines  was  out  of  the  question.  Memories  of  the  popu¬ 
lar  ignorance  oppressed  him.  To  be  free,  he  thought, 
a  people  must  know  how  to  use  freedom.  It  seems  not 
to  have  occurred  to  him  that  there  was  no  school  but 
one  in  which  that  precious  wisdom  could  be  taught, 
and  in  it  were  and  could  be  no  text-books.  For,  what¬ 
ever  scholiasts  may  imagine  and  Utopians  dream,  it 
is  experience  and  experience  alone  that  tutors  man  in 
the  good  use  of  his  freedom.  The  theory  that  a  nation 
must  wait  until  all  its  men  have  university  degrees 
before  it  can  be  trusted  with  its  destinies  is  either  the 
dishonest  handmaid  of  exploitation  or,  as  in  Rizal ’s 
case,  the  footless  product  of  the  cloisters.  Man,  en¬ 
dowed  with  freedom,  will  use  it  wrongly  and  use  it 
rightly;  and  which  is  the  right  way  and  which  the 
wrong  he  will  not  know  until  responsibility  enlightens 
him.  After  all,  it  is  not  wholly  strange  that  even  so 
excellent  a  mind  as  Rizal ’s  should  have  gone  astray 


92 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


on  this  point;  for  he  was  codisciple  of  the  schoolmen, 
and  in  his  day  schoolmen  taught  only  his  error.  We 
need  not  on  this  account  lower  any  estimate  of  his 
worth  and  genius.  He  could  see  that  if  in  his  day  and 
with  their  antecedents  the  people  of  the  Philippines 
should  suddenly  arrive  at  their  independence  they 
would  probably  make  for  a  time  but  erratic  use  of  it. 
What  he  could  not  see  was  that  at  its  worst  their  con¬ 
dition  then  would  be  better  than  the  blight  and  curse 
of  their  previous  state,  and  that  under  the  tuition  of 
experience  they  would  work  out  their  problems  and 
vindicate  their  capacity. 

But  we  have  to  deal  here  with  the  unfolding  of  this 
marvelous  man  and  the  heritage  of  his  deeds  and 
thought.  He  meditated  long  upon  the  unfortunate 
state  of  his  people ;  he  saw  them  bogged  in  ignorance 
and  blinded  by  superstition,  and  hence  he  concluded 
that  until  there  should  be  popular  education,  inde¬ 
pendence  would  mean  only  failure  and  temporary 
reversion.  Of  the  eventual  freedom  of  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  as  of  their  eventual  greatness  and  glory  among 
men,  he  had  never  a  doubt. 

Meantime,  the  first  work  in  hand  was  to  arouse  these 
people  to  the  need  of  education  and  to  wrest  from 
Spain  by  peaceful  means  some  practical  relief  from 
the  savage  tyranny  that  weighed  down  their  hearts, 
darkened  their  lives,  and  of  purpose  kept  them  in 
ignorance. 

With  all  his  other  occupations  he  found  time  to 
press  the  work  on  his  great  book,  until  he  had  com¬ 
pleted  in  it  an  exposition  of  the  full  body  of  his  faith. 
Perhaps  in  the  way  of  construction  it  is  not  so  much  a 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


93 


novel  as  a  series  of  vivid  pictures  of  life  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines  of  that  time;  but  with  a  strangely  vivifying 
necromancy  difficult  to  analyze  or  define,  the  power  of 
these  pictures  is  hardly  excelled  in  modern  literature.1 
We  may  believe  that  the  secret  of  this  compelling 
power  is  the  intensity  of  Rizal’s  feeling ;  it  gives  to  his 
portraitures  a  sincerity  and  virility  no  striving  and  no 
art  could  come  by.  He  obeyed,  unconsciously,  the 
Sidneyan  injunction  about  the  heart  and  the  writing; 
some  of  the  passages  seem  to  be  done  in  his  blood  and 
some  in  his  tears.  The  test  of  their  might  is  easily 
made.  Take  to-day  a  reader  that  has  never  been  in 
the  Philippines  and  knows  nothing  of  the  peculiar  life 
there;  when  he  has  read  ‘ ‘ Noli  Me  Tangere”  he  will 
not  only  feel  that  he  knows  that  life  but  it  will  be  to 
him  as  if  he  had  seen  it,  as  if  he  had  heard  these  char¬ 
acters  talking,  noted  their  visages,  and  discerned  their 
motives  no  less  than  their  acts.  All  this  he  will  feel  in 
spite  of  the  insulating  septum  of  translation,  against 
which  all  the  finer  beauties  of  the  style  must  fall  dead ; 
the  terse,  vigorous,  often  biting  sentences  through 
which  this  tortured  heart  uttered  its  protest,  and  even 
the  almost  magical  charm  of  the  descriptions  of 
the  Philippine  environment. 

To  be  thus  vivid  and  convincing  about  any  phase  of 
life  is  not  easy;  to  make  intimate  to  the  European  a 
life  in  the  world’s  remotest  outskirts,  of  whose  terms 
the  European  has  no  conception,  in  which  he  has  no 
natural  interest,  whose  actors  are  of  a  different  race, 
color,  and  psychology  from  his  own,  is  a  feat  bristling 

1  Mr.  Derbyshire,  a  discriminating  critic,  calls  it  "a  story  pulsating 
with  life.’ ’ 


94 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


with  difficulties.  Some  critics,  piqued,  maybe,  that  a 
Malay  at  his  first  attempt  should  have  triumphed  in  a 
form  of  art  deemed  the  exclusive  heritage  of  the  white 
man,  have  objected  that  RizaPs  work  has  no  great  con¬ 
nected  moving  story,  such  as  Dickens  or  Ohnet  would 
have  dealt  in.  Suppose  this  to  be  true,  it  is  but  a 
narrow  view  of  fictional  art.  The  mirror  fiction  holds 
up  to  nature  may  be  of  many  shapes,  and  the  life 
chosen  for  mirroring  may  be  of  many  phases.  All  that 
the  world  can  insist  upon  is  that  they  shall  be  repre¬ 
sentative  and  perfectly  shown,  and  for  these  Rizal  had 
a  facility  like  that  of  Cervantes.1 

The  theme  is  the  gross,  fat-witted  tyranny  that  had 
enchained  the  Filipinos  and  the  extent  to  which  they 
themselves  were  to  blame  for  it.  Neither  oppressor 
nor  the  complaisant  among  the  oppressed  was  spared 
in  those  cadent  pictures;  here  each  might  behold  his 
ugly  countenance  faultlessly  drawn.  With  bitter  re¬ 
proach  he  showed  to  his  countrymen  their  ignorance, 
their  sloth,  their  tame  submission  that  invited  more 
wrongs.  In  all  human  experience  one  observation  has 
been  invariable.  It  is  that  the  force  that  rules  with 
autocratic  and  irresponsible  sway  is  able  to  bear  any¬ 
thing  else  better  than  ridicule.  The  ridicule  that  Rizal 
poured  upon  the  dominant  powers  in  the  Philippines 
would  have  stung  to  the  quick  Caracalla  himself.  One 
by  one  he  marches  them  across  the  stage,  the  whip  of 
his  terrible  sarcasm  always  on  their  shoulders.  It  is 
an  immortal  procession:  the  scheming,  arrogant,  law¬ 
less,  immoral  friar,  drunk  with  power  and  greed;  the 
Spanish  government  officer,  all  brute  to  the  native,  all 

1  Compare  Derbyshire,  p.  xxxi. 


VOICES  OF  PROPHECY 


95 


crawling  sycophant  before  the  powerful  orders;  the 
arrogant  Spanish  emigre ,  stuffedwith  the  ridiculous 
bombast  of  a  bygone  century,  the  emigre  that  has 
become  rich  in  the  islands  at  the  expense  of  the  native 
and  now  hates  and  despises  the  rounds  of  the  ladder  by 
which  he  did  ascend ;  the  native  that  cringes  before  the 
feet  of  the  classes  that  have  so  unspeakably  wronged 
him;  the  woman  of  Spain’s  Island  colony,  “more 
deadly  than  the  male”;  the  pretentious  and  all  but 
worthless  educational  system;  the  raw  excesses  of  the 
courts;  the  wanton  cruelties  of  a  Government  con¬ 
ducted  by  expatriated  savages ;  the  tortures  and 
pathetic  helplessness  of  the  native  masses.  On  all  this 
the  man  worked  like  Hogarth;  he  will  startle  and 
frighten  you,  but  he  will  convince  you  on  every  page 
that  this  is  the  truth.  In  this  misery,  exactly  this, 
dwelt  the  unfortunate  millions  that  Spain  misgov¬ 
erned;  in  this  terror,  thus  trampled  upon,  overawed, 
silenced,  but  not  subdued.  These  were  the  people’s 
oppressors,  lustful,  cruel,  rapacious,  their  burning 
eyes  following  every  pretty  woman  or  girl,  their  pock¬ 
ets  lined  with  the  peasants’  money,  their  claws  reach¬ 
ing  for  more.  All  the  scenes  of  the  drama  and  all  the 
players  in  it,  drawn  with  irresistible  art:  the  Civil 
Guards,  the  coarse  instruments  of  this  despotism;  the 
means  by  which  terror  was  capitalized;  the  constant 
temptation  to  revolt;  the  devilish  work  of  the  agents 
provocateurs;  the  sickening  punishments  devised  for 
those  that  yielded  to  the  wiles  of  such  agents.1 
Against  this  shone  the  native  grace  and  charm  of  the 
Filipino  woman,  justly  illumined,  her  goodness,  kind- 

1  i  *  Noli  Me  Tangere,  ’  ’  Chaps.  LII  and  LVII. 


96 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


ness,  ready  and  apprehensive  mind,  the  pitfalls  dug 
for  her  by  the  bestial  oppressors  of  her  people.  You 
will  say  that  all  the  materials  are  here  for  one  of  those 
great  dramas  of  human  life  that  reach  down  to  the 
primeval  base  of  first  causes  and  of  such  framing  this 
book  has  been  made. 

Everywhere  is  dense  ignorance.  The  world  that 
three  hundred  years  before  left  all  these  conditions 
behind  still  goes  rolling  in  advance,  and  hardly  a 
Filipino  knows  of  its  passing.  A  great  population 
endowed  with  the  potentialities  of  free  minds,  free 
limbs,  free  souls,  free  ideas,  is  submitting  to  a  yoke 
pressed  down  into  men’s  very  flesh  by  superstition  on 
one  side  and  brute  force  on  the  other. 

We  know  that  many  of  the  incidents  were  but  tran¬ 
scripts  of  what  Rizal  himself  had  seen  and  known; 
many  of  the  characters  transferred  themselves  from 
Calamba  to  his  pages.  Even  when  we  read  them  for 
the  first  time,  and  have,  maybe,  no  previous  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  locale ,  this  conviction  of  truth  and  sincer¬ 
ity  possesses  us ;  how  much  more  it  must  have  reached 
and  stung  those  whose  enormities  it  paints!  “It  is 
only  the  truth  that  hurts.  ’ 9 


CHAPTER  V 


“noli  me  tangere 9 1 

THE  story  is  of  a  young  Filipino,  Juan  Crisostomo 
Ibarra,  whose  father  had  wealth,  was  respected 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  wielded  much  influence  among 
his  own  people.  Juan ,  still  in  his  boyhood,  is  sent  to  a 
school  in  Europe,  that  his  education  may  be  of  the  best. 
All  prosperous  Filipinos  hoped  to  send  their  sons,  if 
they  had  any,  on  this  quest  for  the  classical  golden 
fleece.  While  Juan  is  gone  his  father  becomes  involved 
in  a  dispute  with  the  local  friar  magnate,  the  virtual 
dictator  of  all  the  region  about,  as  always ;  but  this  man 
brutal,  arrogant,  revengeful,  and  lawless  beyond  the 
average  of  his  peers.  The  quarrel  is  about  land ;  most 
quarrels  with  the  friars  had  to  do  with  land  or  rents  or 
fees  or  graft  or  some  fancied  lack  of  crawling  humility 
toward  overblown  pomp.  As  a  rule  the  ill  will  of  a 
friar  meant  for  the  layman  involuntary  exile  taken  at 
utmost  speed  or  a  persecution  to  the  grave  and  without 
defense;  it  being  part  of  the  friars’  system  of  govern¬ 
ment  that  of  any  person  that  dared  to  offend  them  a 
salutary  warning  should  be  made.  In  the  pursuit  of 
this  serviceable  design,  men  put  to  death  for  alleged 
sedition  but  really  because  they  had  fallen  out  with 
the  friars  were  sometimes  quartered  and  hideous  frag¬ 
ments  of  their  bodies  nailed  up  in  the  towns,1  as  in 
Spain  five  hundred  years  before. 

1  To  western  readers  this  will  seem  impossible.  There  are,  however, 
attested  instances  of  the  savage  practice. 

97 


98 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Father  Damaso  is  the  friar  that  the  elder  Ibarra  has 
offended.  The  power  of  the  System  has  been  put 
forth.  Ibarra,  though  innocent  of  any  crime,  is  ar¬ 
rested  and  thrust  into  prison,  where  he  is  kept  without 
examination  or  trial  until  he  wilts  away  and  dies, 
crying  out  the  name  of  his  son.  All  ignorant  of  these 
events,  Juan  comes  home ;  he  knows  his  father  is  dead, 
but  he  suspects  nothing  of  foul  play.  Gradually  the 
truth  is  unfolded  to  him.  He  has  returned  full  of  hope 
for  the  Islands,  full  of  faith  in  their  Government. 
Gradually  he  is  disillusioned,  as  one  ugly  development 
after  another  shows  him  the  blight  under  which  his 
people  drag  out  their  lives. 

Still  he  knows  nothing  against  Father  Damaso . 
That  dark  and  scowling  figure  he  greets  as  his  father’s 
friend. 

The  views  of  Island  life,  sharp,  vivid,  are  like  those 
of  a  stereopticon  or  the  wizard  Zola.  There  is  a  native 
woman,  Sisa,  married  to  a  worthless  dog  of  a  husband 
who  beats  her,  robs  her,  and  gets  drunk.  All  her  life 
centers  in  her  two  boys,  Basilio  and  Crispin.  They 
earn  a  pittance  each,  working  for  the  sacristan  of  a 
church-in  another  village,  ringing  the  bells  and  cleaning 
the  chancel.  They  are  to  come  home  to-night,  and  Sisa 
has  been  preparing  something  to  please  them,  a  supper 
with  things  they  like  to  eat,  earned  by  her  hard  work 
and  self-denial.  She  has  bought  some  small  fishes, 
picked  the  most  beautiful  tomatoes  in  her  little  garden 
(for  she  knows  how  fond  Crispin  is  of  tomatoes),  and 
begged  from  a  neighbor  some  slices  of  dried  wild 
boar’s  meat  and  a  leg  of  wild  duck.  To  this  she  adds 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


99 


the  whitest  of  rice,  which  she  herself  has  gleaned  from 
the  threshing-floors. 

Then  her  worthless  husband  comes  in  and  eats  most 
of  the  boys’  supper. 

Sisa  says  nothing,  although  she  feels  as  if  she  her¬ 
self  were  being  eaten.  His  hunger  at  last  appeased, 
he  remembers  to  ask  for  the  boys.  Then  Sisa  smiles 
happily  and  resolves  that  she  will  not  eat  that  night 
because  what  remains  is  not  enough  for  three.  The 
father  has  asked  for  his  sons;  for  her  that  is  better 
than  a  banquet. 

The  boys  do  not  come,  and  the  father  goes  away. 
At  the  church  serious  trouble  has  fallen  upon  Basilio 
and  Crispin .  The  curate  has  accused  Crispin  of  steal¬ 
ing  and  demands  restitution;  otherwise,  the  boy,  says 
the  humane  curate,  will  be  beaten  to  death.  That  night 
while  their  mother  waits  for  them  they  are  kept  ring¬ 
ing  the  great  bells  in  the  church  tower,  for  a  storm  is 
raging  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  sound  of  church- 
bells  ringing  keeps  off  the  lightning.  In  the  midst  of 
this  employment,  the  sacristan  suddenly  appears,  fines 
the  boys  for  not  ringing  in  tune,  renews  the  accusation 
of  theft  (which  is  quite  groundless),  and  drags  Crispin 
off  to  punishment,  locking  Basilio  in  the  tower.  He 
hears  his  brother’s  cries  for  help  dying  out  in  the  dis¬ 
tance.  Then  he  climbs  the  belfry,  unties  the  ropes 
from  the  bells,  ties  them  to  the  railing,  lets  himself  out 
of  a  window  to  the  ground,  and  runs  home.  But  Cris¬ 
pin  never  appears.  He  has  been  shot  and  killed  by  a 
Civil  Guard. 

Two  or  three  days  later  Civil  Guards  come  to  Sisa’s 
house  and  arrest  her  for  Crispin’s  alleged  theft.  She 


100 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


is  paraded  through  the  streets  as  a  common  malefactor 
and  locked  in  the  common  jail.  Basilio  has  crept  to 
the  woods.  Sisa  begins  to  learn  of  Crispin's  fate. 
When  she  is  released  from  jail  she  has  become  insane. 

She  wanders  about  the  country,  living  on  alms  and 
sleeping  in  the  woods.  Basilio  comes  home  to  find  her 
gone  and  starts  in  search  of  her.  When  at  last  he 
comes  in  sight  of  her,  she  in  her  madness  believes  him 
to  be  another  enemy  and  flees.  He  runs  after  her  and 
overtakes  her  in  time  to  hold  her  in  his  arms  as  she 
dies. 

The  story  of  Sisa  is  interwoven  with  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  story  of  Ibarra. 

Gradually  the  truth  is  unfolded  to  him,  the  legalized 
murder  of  his  father,  the  dishonor  to  his  father’s 
ashes ;  for,  buried  in  a  cemetery,  the  body  of  the  elder 
Ibarra  has  been,  at  the  friar’s  orders,  disinterred1 
and  cast  into  the  lake.  Still  he  does  not  quite  perceive 
what  part  Damaso  has  played  in  this  nor  understand 
that  he  himself  is  pricked  next  upon  the  roll  of  death. 
Soon  or  late,  he  must  learn  all.  Then  will  devolve 
upon  him  the  duty  of  vengeance.  For  safety’s  sake 
the  friar  plans  to  silence  him  betimes. 

Meanwhile,  the  youth,  in  whom  Rizal  has  typified 
the  large  generous  notions  he  himself  once  entertained 
of  Utopia  under  the  rule  of  Spain,  gives  himself  to 
projects  for  the  elevation  of  his  countrymen.  He  is 
impressed  with  the  darkness  of  ignorance  around  him, 

1  A  vein  of  strange  coincidence  that  seems  almost  like  some  intuition 
runs  through  Rizal  7s  novels.  What  happened  to  the  ashes  of  the  elder 
Ibarra  in  the  story  is  exactly  what  happened  a  few  years  later  to  the 
ashes  of  Rizal ’s  brother-in-law. 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


101 


with  the  almost  comic  futility  of  the  educational  sys¬ 
tem,  which  is  no  system  at  all.  Meeting  an  old  school¬ 
master,  he  discusses  these  conditions,  and  thus  is  laid 
bare  to  us  the  means  by  which  the  native  mind  is  kept 
in  its  prison-house. 

‘  ‘  How  many  pupils  have  you  now  ?  ’  ’  asked  Ibarra,  with  in¬ 
terest,  after  a  pause. 

‘ 1  More  than  two  hundred  on  the  roll,  but  only  about  twenty- 
five  in  actual  attendance.’ ’ 

“How  does  that  happen?” 

.  .  .  The  schoolmaster  shook  his  head  sadly.  “A  poor 
teacher  struggles  against  not  only  prejudice  but  also  against 
certain  influences.  First,  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  a 
suitable  place  and  not  to  do  as  I  must  do  at  present — hold  the 
classes  under  the  convent o  by  the  side  of  the  padre ’s  carriage. 
There  the  children,  who  like  to  read  aloud,  very  naturally 
disturb  the  padre ,  and  he  often  comes  down,  nervous,  es¬ 
pecially  when  he  has  his  attacks,  yells  at  them,  and  even 
insults  me.  You  know  that  one  can  neither  teach  nor  learn 
under  such  conditions.  ...” 

The  curate  is  the  same  Father  Damaso,  the  friar 
with  whom  Ibarra’s  father  had  quarreled.  In  his 
overbearing  arrogance  he  has  wantonly  insulted  the 
poor  schoolmaster,  who  goes  on  thus  with  his  narra¬ 
tive  : 

“What  was  I  to  do  with  only  my  meager  salary,  to  collect 
which  I  have  to  get  the  curate’s  approval  and  make  a  trip  to 
the  capital  of  the  province — what  could  I  do  against  him,  the 
foremost  religious  and  political  power  in  the  town,  backed  up 
by  his  order,  feared  by  the  Government,  rich,  powerful,  sought 
after  and  listened  to,  always  believed  and  heeded  by  every- 


102 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


body?  Although  he  insulted  me,  I  had  to  remain  silent,  for 
if  I  had  replied  he  would  have  had  me  removed  from  my  posi¬ 
tion,  by  which  I  should  lose  all  hope  in  my  chosen  profession. 
Nor  would  the  cause  of  education  gain  anything,  but  all  to  the 
contrary;  for  everybody  would  take  the  curate’s  side,  they 
would  curse  me  and  call  me  presumptuous,  proud,  vain,  a  bad 
Christian,  uncultivated;  and  if  not  those  things,  then  ‘anti- 
Spanish’  and  ‘a  filibuster.’  Of  a  schoolmaster  neither  learn¬ 
ing  nor  zeal  is  expected ;  only  resignation,  humility,  and  inac¬ 
tion  are  demanded.  May  God  pardon  me  if  I  have  gone 
against  my  conscience  and  my  judgment,  but  I  was  born  in 
this  country,  I  have  to  live,  I  have  a  mother;  so  I  have 
abandoned  myself  to  my  fate  like  a  corpse  tossed  about  by 
the  waves.” 

He  has  tried  to  abolish  whipping  in  his  school.  “ I 
endeavored  to  make  study  a  thing  of  love  and  joy,  I 
wished  to  make  the  primer  not  a  black  book  bathed  in 
the  tears  of  childhood  but  a  friend  that  was  going  to 
reveal  wonderful  secrets;  of  the  school- room  not  a 
place  of  sorrows  but  a  scene  of  intellectual  refresh¬ 
ment.  So,  little  by  little,  I  abolished  corporal  punish¬ 
ment,  taking  the  instruments  of  it  entirely  away  from 
the  school  and  replacing  their  stimulus  with  emulation 
and  personal  pride.” 

The  innovation  was  regarded  as  sacrilege  and 
heresy. 

“The  curate  sent  for  me,  and,  fearing  another  scene,  I 
greeted  him  curtly  in  Tagalog.  On  this  occasion  he  was  very 
serious  with  me.  He  said  that  I  was  exposing  the  children  to 
destruction,  that  I  was  wasting  time,  that  I  was  not  fulfilling 
my  duties,  that  the  father  who  spared  the  rod  was  spoiling  the 
child — according  to  the  Holy  Ghost — that  learning  enters  with 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


103 


the  blood,1  and  so  on.  He  quoted  to  me  sayings  of  barbarous 
times  as  if  it  were  enough  that  a  thing  had  been  said  by  the 
ancients  to  make  it  indisputable,  according  to  which  we  ought 
to  believe  that  there  really  existed  those  monsters  which  in 
past  ages  were  imaged  and  sculptured  in  the  palaces  and  tem¬ 
ples.  Finally,  he  charged  me  to  be  more  careful  and  return 
to  the  old  system,  otherwise  he  would  report  me  to  the  alcalde 
of  the  province.” 

So  in  despair  he  brought  out  the  whips  again,  and 
sadness  reigned  in  the  school  where  he  had  introduced 
happiness  and  work.  The  number  of  his  pupils  was 
reduced  to  a  fifth  of  the  former  attendance. 

“So  then  I  am  now  working  to  the  end  that  the  children 
become  changed  into  parrots  and  know  by  heart  so  many 
things  of  which  they  do  not  understand  a  word.” 

It  is  doubtless  a  perfect  picture  of  education  in  the 
Philippines  and  outlines  the  size  of  the  task  that  Rizal 
had  shouldered.2 

“Let  us  not  be  so  pessimistic,”  said  Ibarra. 

He  resolves  to  build  and  endow  for  the  town  a  mod¬ 
ern  school-house.  As  the  time  comes  for  the  laying 
of  the  corner-stone,  at  which  ceremony  he  is  to  offici¬ 
ate,  he  receives  a  mysterious  warning  that  an  attempt 
will  be  made  upon  his  life.  This  he  seemingly  disre¬ 
gards  ;  and  yet,  when  he  must  descend  into  the  trench 
and  stand  beneath  the  corner-stone  suspended  from 
the  scaffold,  he  looks  anxiously  above  him,  watches  the 
apparatus,  and  is  tense  for  a  leap.  There  is  a  sound 

1  ‘  ‘  The  letter  enters  with  the  blood. ’  ’  This  was  the  favorite  motto  of 
Dr.  Crnz,  master  of  the  school  at  Binan,  the  first  that  Rizal  attended. 
The  protest  here  against  corporal  punishment  in  schools  is  doubtless 
sharpened  from  Rizal ’s  own  experiences. 

2  “Noli  Me  Tangere,”  Chap.  XIX,  Derbyshire’s  translation. 


104 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


of  cracking  timber ;  in  an  instant  the  great  stone  falls, 
but  he  has  sprung  aside  and  saved  his  life. 

At  the  dinner  with  which  the  day’s  ceremonials  are 
concluded,  Padre  Damaso  is  a  conspicuous  guest.  Not 
even  yet  is  Ibarra ,  despite  certain  intimations,  aware 
that  Damaso  was  his  father’s  remorseless  enemy,  that 
the  gloomy,  vindictive  friar  had  put  forth  the  hidden 
powers  of  the  orders  and  dragged  his  father  to  death. 
But  at  the  dinner  Damaso ,  stung  with  baffled  hate 
because  Ibarra  has  escaped  the  gin  so  cunningly 
spread  for  his  life,  loses  all  self-control  and  utters 
against  Ibarra’s  father  an  insult  no  son  could  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  endure.  Ibarra  springs  at  his  throat,  knocks 
him  down,  and  stands  glowering  over  him.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  petrified  spectators  murder  is  about  to  be 
done,  when  Maria  Clara ,  Capitdn  Tiago’s  reputed 
daughter,  throws  herself  between  the  infuriated  youth 
and  the  prostrate  friar. 

Maria  Clara  is  Ibarra’s  sweetheart.  She  pleads 
with  him  with  her  eyes,  and  he  recovers  enough  self- 
command  to  take  himself  away. 

But  the  assault  upon  the  friar  is  his  ruin.  He  has 
committed  the  unpardonable  sin,  the  blackest  crime  in 
the  calendar:  he  has  laid  “violent  hand  upon  a  friar, 
representative  at  once  in  his  own  person  of  the  might 
of  the  church  and  the  majesty  of  the  realm.”  That  day 
he  is  excommunicated,  a  punishment  that  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  nineteenth  century,  retained  all  the  poignancy 
it  had  in  Darkest  Europe,  1000  a.  d. 

He  has  become  a  moral  leper. 

Capitdn  Tiago  breaks  off  the  engagement  with  his 
daughter;  in  his  view  the  word  of  the  friars  is  sacred, 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


105 


oracular,  final.  He  is  one  of  the  great  portraits  of  the 
book,  this  Capitan  Tiago ;  a  typical  Filipino  of  the 
class  that  bent  assiduously  at  the  feet  of  power.  The 
drawing  is  like  many  a  sketch  in  RizaPs  note-books,  a 
piece  of  startling  realism.  Tiago  is  a  living,  talking, 
sputtering,  foolish  thing  of  flesh  and  blood  that  we  see 
and  hear.  Even  though  we  have  never  seen  another 
being  of  his  kind  anywhere,  we  see  him  in  this  picture¬ 
making.  He  is  vain,  pretentious,  fearful,  abjectly 
superstitious,  filled  with  strange  notions  about  the 
influences  of  graven  images  and  the  grandeur  of 
Spain ;  a  Filipino  perverted  by  some  wealth,  the  allure¬ 
ments  of  a  social  ambition,  and  an  education  gro¬ 
tesquely  awry.  Against  the  ills  of  the  flesh  and  the 
chances  of  loss  in  the  cockpit,  he  has  recourse  to  the 
same  arcana:  so  many  candles  burned  before  this 
shrine  or  that,  so  many  bombs  to  be  exploded  at  a 
fiesta ,  or  so  many  masses  bought  at  current  rates.  In 
all  things,  to  cultivate  the  favor  of  the  friars  is  the 
boundary  of  his  more  earthly  philosophy.  Ibarra ,  rich 
and  eminent,  newly  returned  from  Spain  with  the  gloss 
of  a  European  education  fresh  upon  him,  is  in  his  eyes 
a  delectable  son-in-law.  Ibarra  under  the  ban  of  the 
friars  is  an  object  of  horror. 

The  affection  between  Ibarra  and  Maria  Clara  has 
the  welcome  fragrance  of  purity  and  exaltation  in  the 
midst  of  these  miasmas.  They  had  been  playmates  in 
childhood,  they  had  grown  up  together,  they  had  really 
plighted  their  troth  when  Ibarra  went  to  Europe.  He 
had  been  chivalrously  true  to  her  in  all  his  seven  years 
of  travel.  He  has  come  back  to  her  sure  of  her  love 
and  looking  forward  to  an  early  marriage.  Upon  all 


106 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


such  dreams  Tiago  sets  his  foot;  he  not  only  forbids 
any  further  communication  with  Ibarra ,  but  he  favors 
another  lover,  one  Linares,  a  feeble-willed  young 
Spaniard  brought  forward  with  suspicious  haste  by 
Father  Damaso.  With  this  candidate,  against  the 
vehement  protests  of  Maria  Clara ,  an  engagement  is 
quickly  made. 

Meantime,  the  governor-general  comes  to  the  town 
and  hears  about  the  troubles  of  Ibarra,  wThose  father 
he  had  known  and  admired.  The  governor-general  is 
a  type  of  many  that  Spain  sent  to  the  Philippines, 
excellent  in  purpose,  well  aware  of  the  malignant  fever 
of  friarism,  resolved  to  withstand  it,  and  invariably 
finding  his  good  resolutions  crumbling  under  him. 
Yet,  in  this  instance,  he  will  save  if  he  can  the  son  of 
his  old  friend  from  the  clutches  of  the  modem  Inquisi¬ 
tion.  Between  the  friars  and  the  archbishops  of 
Manila  is  a  smoldering  feud,  for  the  archbishop  is 
usually  chosen  outside  of  the  four  orders.  The  gov¬ 
ernor-general  nudges  the  archbishop;  the  archbishop 
cancels  the  excommunication ;  and  Ibarra,  escaped 
from  this  damnation,  is  doomed  by  the  friars  to 
another  still  worse. 

With  Tiago  the  lifting  of  the  ban  upon  Ibarra  makes 
no  difference ;  he  is  still  anathema  to  the  all-powerful 
orders.  The  campaign  for  Linares  and  against  Ibarra 
is  waged  vigorously  with  the  aid  of  many  candles  on 
many  shrines  and  the  promises  of  many  bombs.  At 
fiestas,  it  should  be  explained,  the  custom  was  to  burn 
great  quantities  of  fireworks  by  day  and  night;  and 
the  piety  of  the  devout,  as  expressed  in  squibs,  crack¬ 
ers,  rockets,  pin-wheels,  and  bombs,  was  supposed  to 


4  4  NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


107 


insure  their  salvation.  In  this  form  of  divine  worship, 
the  friars  had  a  commercial  interest;  it  may  be  be¬ 
lieved  that  if  a  doubt  of  its  perfect  efficacy  occurred 
to  them  they  managed  to  master  it. 

Under  the  Spanish  social  system,  Philippine 
maidens  of  all  complexions  married  whomsoever  their 
parents  told  them  to  marry  and  silenced  their  objec¬ 
tions,  if  they  had  any;  hence,  in  the  Tiago  household 
the  preparations  for  the  marriage  of  Maria  Clara  and 
the  half-witted  Linares  are  urged  with  a  sweet  confi¬ 
dence.  Maria  Clara  herself  contributes  the  only  flaw 
in  these  proceedings.  She  falls  desperately  ill. 

News  of  her  condition  is  brought  to  Ibarra  by  the 
person  in  the  book  called  “the  Pilot  Elias,”  who  is  one 
of  the  pivots  on  which  the  narrative  turns.  It  was 
Elias  that  warned  Ibarra  of  the  plot  to  crush  out  his 
life  with  the  corner-stone.  In  a  picnic  fishing  expedi¬ 
tion  Ibarra  had  saved  Elias  from  the  jaws  of  a  cayman 
(crocodile)  and  Elias  had  sworn  his  gratitude.  He  is 
evidently  much  above  his  caste,  which  is  that  of  a  boat¬ 
man  ;  he  has  had  an  education.  In  and  out  of  the  story 
he  flits  mysteriously  until  his  true  vocation  is  revealed ; 
he  is  a  man  with  a  history,  a  victim  of  the  prevailing 
despotism,  forced  by  his  sufferings  to  ponder  the  ills 
of  his  people  and  become  at  last  a  secret,  restless, 
wary,  and  intelligent  agitator  against  the  System  of 
his  day. 

It  is  through  him  that  Rizal  voices  his  protests.  As 
the  plot  unfolds,  Ibarra  wins  Elias'  story.  We  shall 
repeat  it  here,  but  with  a  preface  of  warning.  In  these 
times,  the  average  reader,  the  more  if  he  is  an  Ameri¬ 
can,  will  look  upon  the  tale  as  a  wild  extravagance,  so 


108 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


easily  are  the  conditions  of  one  generation  obliterated 
in  the  next,  and  so  difficult  is  it  to  believe  the  life  of 
one  country  is  not  like  the  life  of  all  countries.  Yet 
what  Elias  is  fabled  here  to  have  told  Ibarra  might 
have  been  taken  with  changes  of  names  from  veritable 
records.  Exactly  these  things  happened  in  the  Philip¬ 
pine  Islands  in  the  nineteenth  century,  even  in  the  last 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  They  happened  in 
many  regions  and  to  many  persons.  Still  worse  things 
happened,  if  worse  can  be  conceived;  for  lust  and 
greed  and  reversion  ran  savage  riot  under  two  condi¬ 
tions  that  have  always  been  hothouses  for  such 
growths:  autocracy,  and  distance  from  the  worlds 
observation. 

ELIAS’  STORY 

“Some  sixty  years  ago  my  grandfather  dwelt  in  Manila, 
being  employed  as  a  bookkeeper  in  a  Spanish  commercial 
house.  He  was  then  very  young,  was  married,  and  had  a  son. 
One  night,  from  some  unknown  cause,  the  warehouse  burned 
down.  The  fire  was  communicated  to  the  dwelling  of  his  em¬ 
ployer  and  from  there  to  many  other  buildings.  The  losses 
were  great,  a  scapegoat  was  sought,  and  the  merchant  ac¬ 
cused  my  grandfather.  In  vain  he  protested  his  innocence, 
but  he  was  poor  and  unable  to  pay  the  great  lawyers;  so  he 
was  condemned  to  be  flogged  publicly  and  paraded  through 
the  streets  of  Manila.  Not  so  very  long  since  they  still  used 
the  infamous  method  of  punishment  which  the  people  call 
‘  cab  alio  y  vaca,’  and  which  is  a  thousand  times  more  dreadful 
than  death  itself.  Abandoned  by  all  except  his  young  wife, 
my  grandfather  saw  himself  tied  to  a  horse,  followed  by  an 
unfeeling  crowd,  and  whipped  on  every  street-corner  in  the 
sight  of  men,  his  brothers,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  numer¬ 
ous  temples  of  a  God  of  peace.  When  the  wretch,  now  for 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


109 


ever  disgraced,  had  satisfied  the  vengeance  of  man  with  his 
blood,  his  tortures,  and  his  cries,  he  had  to  be  taken  off  the 
horse,  for  he  had  become  unconscious.  Would  to  God  that  he 
had  died !  But  by  one  of  those  refinements  of  cruelty  he  was 
given  his  liberty.  His  wife,  pregnant  at  the  time,  vainly 
begged  from  door  to  door  for  work  or  alms  in  order  to  care 
for  her  sick  husband  and  their  poor  son,  but  who  would  trust 
the  wife  of  an  incendiary  and  a  disgraced  man?  The  wife, 
then,  had  to  become  a  prostitute !  ’  ’ 

Ibarra  rose  in  his  seat. 

“Oh,  don’t  get  excited!  Prostitution  was  not  now  a  dis¬ 
honor  for  her  or  a  disgrace  to  her  husband ;  for  them  honor 
and  shame  no  longer  existed.  The  husband  recovered  from 
his  wounds  and  came  with  his  wife  and  child  to  hide  himself 
in  the  mountains  of  this  province.  Here  they  lived  several 
months,  miserable,  alone,  hated  and  shunned  by  all.  The  wife 
gave  birth  to  a  sickly  child,  which  fortunately  died.  Unable 
to  endure  such  misery  and  being  less  courageous  than  his  wife, 
my  grandfather,  in  despair  at  seeing  his  sick  wife  deprived  of 
all  care  and  assistance,  hanged  himself.  His  corpse  rotted  in 
sight  of  the  son,  who  was  scarcely  able  to  care  for  his  sick 
mother,  and  the  stench  from  it  led  to  their  discovery.  Her 
husband ’s  death  was  attributed  to  her,  for  of  what  is  the  wife 
of  a  wretch,  a  woman  who  has  been  a  prostitute  besides,  not 
believed  to  be  capable?  If  she  swears,  they  call  her  a  per¬ 
jurer;  if  she  weeps,  they  say  she  is  acting;  and  that  she  blas¬ 
phemes  when  she  calls  on  God.  Nevertheless,  they  had  pity 
on  her  condition  and  waited  for  the  birth  of  another  child 
before  they  flogged  her.  You  know  how  the  friars  spread  the 
belief  that  the  Indians  can  only  be  managed  by  blows:  read 
what  Padre  Gaspar  de  San  Agustin  says ! 

‘  ‘  A  woman  thus  condemned  will  curse  the  day  on  which  her 
child  is  born,  and  this,  besides  prolonging  her  torture,  vio¬ 
lates  every  maternal  sentiment.  Unfortunately,  she  brought 


110 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


forth  a  healthy  child.  Two  months  afterward,  the  sentence 
was  executed  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  men  who  thought 
that  thus  they  were  performing  their  duty.  Not  being  at 
peace  in  these  mountains,  she  then  fled  with  her  two  sons  to  a 
neighboring  province,  where  they  lived  like  wild  beasts, 
hating  and  hated.  The  elder  of  the  two  boys  still  remembered, 
even  amid  so  much  misery,  the  happiness  of  his  infancy,  so  he 
became  a  tuUmn  as  soon  as  he  found  himself  strong  enough. 
Before  long  the  bloody  name  of  Balat  spread  from  province 
to  province,  a  terror  to  the  people,  because  in  his  revenge  he 
did  everything  with  blood  and  fire.  The  younger,  who  was  by 
nature  kind-hearted,  resigned  himself  to  his  shameful  fate 
along  with  his  mother,  and  they  lived  on  what  the  woods 
afforded,  clothing  themselves  in  the  cast-off  rags  of  travelers. 
She  had  lost  her  name,  being  known  only  as  the  convict,  the 
prostitute,  the  scourged.  He  was  known  as  the  son  of  his 
mother  only,  because  the  gentleness  of  his  disposition  led 
every  one  to  believe  that  he  was  not  the  son  of  the  incendiary 
and  because  any  doubt  as  to  the  morality  of  the  Indios  can  be 
held  reasonable. 

“At  last,  one  day  the  notorious  Balat  fell  into  the  clutches 
of  the  authorities,  who  exacted  of  him  a  strict  accounting  for 
his  crimes,  and  of  his  mother  for  having  done  nothing  to  rear 
him  properly.  One  morning  the  younger  brother  went  to  look 
for  his  mother,  who  had  gone  into  the  woods  to  gather  mush¬ 
rooms  and  had  not  returned.  He  found  her  stretched  out  on 
the  ground  under  a  cotton-wood  tree  beside  the  highway,  her 
face  turned  toward  the  sky,  her  eyes  fixed  and  staring,  her 
clenched  hands  buried  in  the  blood-stained  earth.  Some  im¬ 
pulse  moved  him  to  look  up  in  the  direction  toward  which  the 
eyes  of  the  dead  woman  were  staring,  and  he  saw  hanging 
from  a  branch  a  basket  and  in  the  basket  the  gory  head  of  his 
brother !  ’ ’ 

“My  God!”  ejaculated  Ibarra. 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


111 


“That  might  have  been  the  exclamation  of  my  father,” 
continued  Elias  coldly.  “The  body  of  the  brigand  had  been 
cut  up  and  the  trunk  buried,  but  his  limbs  were  distributed 
and  hung  up  in  different  towns.  If  ever  you  go  from  Calamba 
to  Santo  Tomas  you  will  still  see  a  withered  lomboy- tree  where 
one  of  my  uncle’s  legs  hung  rotting — nature  has  blasted  the 
tree  so  that  it  no  longer  grows  or  bears  fruit.  The  same  was 
done  with  the  other  limbs,  but  the  head,  as  the  best  part  of  the 
person  and  the  portion  most  easily  recognizable,  was  hung  up 
in  front  of  his  mother’s  hut!” 

Ibarra  bowed  his  head. 

“The  boy  fled  like  one  accursed,”  Elias  went  on.  “He  fled 
from  town  to  town  by  mountain  and  valley.  When  he  thought 
that  he  had  reached  a  place  where  he  was  not  known,  he  hired 
himself  out  as  a  laborer  in  the  house  of  a  rich  man  in  the 
province  of  Tayabas.  His  activity  and  the  gentleness  of  his 
character  gained  him  the  good  will  of  all  that  did  not  know 
his  past,  and  by  his  thrift  and  economy  he  succeeded  in  accu¬ 
mulating  a  little  capital.  He  was  still  young,  he  thought  his 
sorrows  buried  in  the  past,  and  he  dreamed  of  a  happy  future. 
His  pleasant  appearance,  his  youth,  and  his  somewhat  unfor¬ 
tunate  condition  won  him  the  love  of  a  young  woman  of  the 
town,  but  he  dared  not  ask  for  her  hand  from  fear  that  his 
past  might  become  known.  But  love  is  stronger  than  anything 
else,  and  they  wandered  from  the  straight  path ;  so,  to  save  the 
woman’s  honor,  he  risked  everything  by  asking  her  in  mar¬ 
riage.  The  records  were  sought,  and  his  whole  past  became 
known.  The  girl’s  father  was  rich  and  succeeded  in  having 
him  prosecuted.  He  did  not  try  to  defend  himself  but  ad¬ 
mitted  everything,  and  so  was  sent  to  prison.  The  woman 
gave  birth  to  twins,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  who  were  nurtured  in 
secret  and  made  to  believe  that  their  father  was  dead — no 
difficult  matter,  since  at  a  tender  age  they  saw  their  mother 
die,  and  they  gave  little  thought  to  tracing  genealogies.  As 


112 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


our  maternal  grandfather  was  rich  our  childhood  passed 
happily.  My  sister  and  I  were  brought  up  together,  loving 
one  another  as  only  twins  can  love  when  they  have  no  other 
affections.  When  quite  young  I  was  sent  to  study  in  the 
Jesuit  College ;  and  my  sister,  in  order  that  we  might  not  be 
completely  separated,  entered  the  Concordia  College.  After 
our  brief  education  was  finished,  since  we  desired  only  to  be 
farmers,  we  returned  to  the  town  to  take  possession  of  the 
inheritance  left  us  by  our  grandfather.  We  lived  happily  for 
a  time,  the  future  smiled  on  us,  we  had  many  servants,  our 
fields  produced  abundant  harvests,  and  my  sister  was  about  to 
be  married  to  a  young  man  whom  she  adored  and  who  re¬ 
sponded  equally  to  her  affection. 

“But  in  a  dispute  over  money  and  by  reason  of  my  haughty 
disposition  at  that  time,  I  alienated  the  good  will  of  a  distant 
relative,  and  one  day  he  cast  in  my  face  my  doubtful  birth  and 
shameful  descent.  I  thought  it  all  a  slander  and  demanded 
satisfaction.  The  tomb  which  covered  so  much  rottenness  was 
again  opened,  and  to  my  consternation  the  whole  truth  came 
out  to  overwhelm  me.  To  add  to  our  sorrow,  we  had  had  for 
many  years  an  old  servant  who  had  endured  all  my  whims 
without  ever  leaving  us,  contenting  himself  merely  with  weep¬ 
ing  and  groaning  at  the  rough  jests  of  the  other  servants.  I 
don’t  know  how  my  relative  had  found  it  out,  but  the  fact  is 
that  he  had  this  old  man  summoned  into  court  and  made  him 
tell  the  truth — that  old  servant,  who  had  clung  to  his  beloved 
children,  and  whom  I  had  abused  many  times,  was  my  father ! 
Our  happiness  faded  away,  I  gave  up  our  fortune,  my  sister 
lost  her  betrothed,  and  with  our  father  we  left  the  town  to 
seek  refuge  elsewhere.  The  thought  that  he  had  contributed 
to  our  misfortunes  shortened  the  old  man’s  days,  but  before 
he  died  I  learned  from  his  lips  the  whole  story  of  the  sorrow¬ 
ful  past. 

“My  sister  and  I  were  left  alone.  She  wept  a  great  deal, 


DRAWINGS  BY  RIZAL 
Intended  to  be  illustrations  for  his  novels 


4  4  NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


113 


but,  even  in  the  midst  of  such  great  sorrows  as  heaped  them¬ 
selves  upon  us,  she  could  not  forget  her  love.  Without  com¬ 
plaining,  without  uttering  a  word,  she  saw  her  former  sweet¬ 
heart  married  to  another  girl;  but  I  watched  her  gradually 
sicken  without  being  able  to  console  her.  One  day  she  dis¬ 
appeared  and  it  was  in  vain  that  I  sought  everywhere,  in  vain 
I  made  inquiries  about  her.  About  six  months  afterward  I 
learned  that  about  that  time,  after  a  flood  on  the  lake,  there 
had  been  found  in  some  rice-fields  bordering  on  the  beach  at 
Calamba  the  corpse  of  a  young  woman  who  had  been  either 
drowned  or  murdered,  for  she  had  had,  so  they  said,  a  knife 
sticking  in  her  breast.  The  officials  of  that  town  published 
the  fact  in  the  country  round  about ;  but  no  one  came  to  claim 
the  body,  no  young  woman  apparently  had  disappeared. 
From  the  description  they  gave  me  afterward  of  her  dress, 
her  ornaments,  the  beauty  of  her  countenance,  and  her  abun¬ 
dant  hair,  I  recognized  in  her  my  poor  sister. 

“Since  then  I  have  wandered  from  province  to  province. 
My  reputation  and  my  history  are  in  the  mouths  of  many. 
They  attribute  great  deeds  to  me,  sometimes  calumniating  me, 
but  I  pay  little  attention  to  men,  keeping  ever  on  my  way. 
Such  in  brief  is  my  story,  a  story  of  one  of  the  judgments 
of  men.” 

Elias  fell  silent  as  he  rowed  along. 

“I  still  believe  that  you  are  not  wrong, ”  murmured 
Crisostomo  [Ibarra]  in  a  low  voice,  “when  you  say  that  jus¬ 
tice  should  seek  to  do  good  by  rewarding  virtue  and  educating 
the  criminals.  Only,  it ’s  impossible,  Utopian!  And  where 
could  be  secured  so  much  money,  so  many  new  employees?” 

“For  what,  then,  are  the  priests  who  proclaim  their  mission 
of  peace  and  charity?  Is  it  more  meritorious  to  moisten  the 
head  of  a  child  with  water,  to  give  it  salt  to  eat,  than  to 
awake  in  the  benighted  conscience  of  a  criminal  that  spark 
which  God  has  granted  to  every  man  to  light  him  to  his  wel- 


114 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


fare?  Is  it  more  humane  to  accompany  a  criminal  to  the 
scaffold  than  to  lead  him  along  the  difficult  path  from  vice  to 
virtue?  Don’t  they  also  pay  spies,  executioners,  Civil- 
Guards?  These  things,  besides  being  dirty,  also  cost  money.” 

“My  friend,  neither  you  nor  I,  although  we  may  wish  it, 
can  accomplish  this.” 

“Alone,  it  is  true,  we  are  nothing,  but  take  up  the  cause 
of  the  people,  unite  yourself  with  the  people,  be  not  heedless 
of  their  cries,  set  an  example  to  the  rest,  spread  the  idea  of 
what  is  called  a  fatherland!” 

“What  the  people  ask  for  is  impossible.  We  must  wait.” 

“Wait!  To  wait  means  to  suffer!” 

“If  I  should  ask  for  it,  the  powers  that  be  would  laugh 
at  me.” 

Elias  desires  Ibarra  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  people  and  secure  their  emancipation  from  these 
horrors.  Ibarra  draws  back;  all  the  instincts  of  his 
class  and  the  prejudices  of  his  education  are  against 
anything  of  that  kind. 

“But  if  the  people  support  you?”  oaid  Elias. 

“Never!  I  will  never  be  the  one  to  lead  the  multitude  to 
get  by  force  what  the  Government  does  not  think  proper  to 
grant,  no !  If  I  should  ever  see  the  multitude  armed  I  would 
place  myself  on  the  side  of  the  Government,  for  in  such  a  mob 
I  should  not  see  my  countrymen.  I  desire  the  country’s  wel¬ 
fare;  therefore  I  would  build  a  school-house.  I  seek  it  by 
means  of  instruction,  by  progressive  advancement;  without 
light  there  is  no  road.” 

“Neither  is  there  liberty  without  strife!”  answered  Elias. 

“The  fact  is  that  I  don’t  want  that  liberty!” 

“The  fact  is  that  without  liberty  there  is  no  light,”  replied 
the  pilot  with  warmth. 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


115 


It  is  like  a  conversation  in  Rizal’s  own  heart  between 
the  spirit  of  the  college  and  the  spirit  of  his  country. 
Into  it,  beyond  a  doubt,  he  put  the  conflict  that  was 
torturing  his  soul.  The  spirit  of  love  and  good 
will  in  him  grappling  like  Jacob  with  the  soul  that  told 
him  that  from  oppressions  by  violence  could  come  only 
revolt  by  violence. 

It  may  be  profitable  to  follow  this  farther.  It  is  a 
page  of  Rizal’s  own  revealing  always  overlooked  by 
those  that  insist  he  was  opposed  to  Philippine  inde¬ 
pendence. 

“You  may  say  [the  pilot  goes  on]  that  you  are  only  slightly 
acquainted  with  your  country,  and  I  believe  you.  You  don’t 
see  the  struggle  that  is  preparing;  you  don’t  see  the  cloud  on 
the  horizon.  The  fight  is  beginning  in  the  sphere  of  ideas, 
to  descend  later  into  the  arena,  which  will  be  dyed  with  blood. 
I  hear  the  voice  of  God — woe  unto  them  who  would  oppose  it ! 
For  them  history  has  not  been  written !  ’  ’ 

No  one  can  believe  Rizal  wrote  this  without  feeling  it 
in  his  heart  and  soul. 

Elias  was  transfigured ;  standing  uncovered,  with  his  manly 
face  illuminated  by  the  moon,  there  was  something  extraor¬ 
dinary  about  him.  He  shook  his  long  hair  and  went  on : 

“Don’t  you  see  how  everything  is  awakening?  The  sleep 
has  lasted  for  centuries,  but  one  day  the  thunderbolt  struck, 
and,  in  striking,  infused  life.” 

He  means  the  slaying  of  the  guiltless  priests,  Fa¬ 
thers  Burgos,  Gomez,  and  Zamora,  victims  to  the  homi¬ 
cidal  mania  that  descended  upon  the  Government  after 
the  revolt  of  1872. 


116 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


“Since  then  [the  pilot  continues]  new  tendencies  are  stir¬ 
ring  our  spirits,  and  these  tendencies,  to-day  scattered,  will 
some  day  be  united,  guided  by  the  God  who  has  not  failed 
other  peoples,  and  who  will  not  fail  us,  for  his  cause  is  the 
cause  of  liberty !”  1 

The  trap  the  friars  have  prepared  for  Ibarra  is  a 
thing  infamous  in  Philippine  history,  and  yet  so  com¬ 
mon  that  in  fact  and  not  in  fiction  it  has  sent  scores  of 
innocent  men  to  their  deaths.  It  had  never  been  known 
to  fail.  Agents  provocateurs  stage  a  pretended  revolt. 
Nothing  is  easier;  the  materials  are  always  to  hand; 
likewise  the  occasion.  It  is  but  necessary  to  take  the 
latest  outrage  by  the  Civil  Guard  and  stir  some  one  to 
object  to  it.  The  rest  follows  automatically.  In  this 
instance  Ibarra  is  the  pretended  instigator,  although 
he  has  never  heard  of  the  wrong  he  is  supposed  to 
resent. 

Elias  warns  him  of  what  is  afoot  and  urges  him  to 
escape ;  innocent  as  he  is,  he  shall  have  no  chance  for 
his  life  before  the  tribunal  that  will  try  him  if  he  waits 
for  arrest.  He  will  not  go  until  he  has  had  word  with 
Maria  Clara.  The  last  scene  between  them  is  excellent 
drama ;  he  gets  under  her  window  in  a  boat  and  climbs 
up  the  vines.  For  the  charge  of  complicity  in  the  stage 
rebellion  is  no  basis  except  a  letter  that  seven  years 
before  he  had  written  to  her.  Some  phrases  that  might 
be  construed  to  suggest  a  vague  discontent  with  condi¬ 
tions  in  the  Philippines  make  up  the  entire  case.  On 
slighter  evidence  many  a  man  has  been  tortured  first 
and  gone  next  to  the  Golgotha  at  Bagumbayan  Field. 
The  friars  have  this  letter.  How  did  they  get  it  when 

144 Noli  Me  Tangere, M  Chap.  L,  Derbyshire’s  translation. 


“NOLI  ME  TANGERE” 


117 


for  so  many  years  it  had  been  one  of  the  dearest  posses¬ 
sions  of  Maria  Clara?  Ibarra  can  surmise  only  that 
she  has  willingly  surrendered  it  and  so  betrayed  him. 
In  that  last  interview  he  learns  that  it  was  filched  from 
her  by  the  friar  Silva ,  whose  interest  in  her  has  been 
more  than  ecclesiastical  and  who  on  the  same  occasion 
has  disclosed  to  her  the  facts  as  to  her  own  parentage. 

She  is  not  the  daughter  of  Capitidn  Tiago  but  of 
Father  Damaso — an  illegitimate  daughter. 

Satisfied  that  she  is  innocent,  Ibarra  now  consents 
to  escape  from  his  foes.  Elias ,  the  pilot,  who  has  so 
often  befriended  him,  is  waiting  below  in  the  banca . 
They  row  up  the  Pasig  River.  When  they  approach  a 
soldier,  Ibarra  hides  himself  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat 
under  the  freight.  At  last  the  Civil  Guards  are  in 
pursuit.  Elias  tries  to  escape  by  hard  rowing.  The 
Guards  begin  to  fire.  Elias  slips  overboard.  Taking 
him  for  Ibarra ,  the  Guards  follow  in  their  banca ,  firing 
constantly.  The  hunted  man  is  seen  to  sink.  When 
the  Guards  come  up  they  think  they  see  blood.  They 
take  the  news  back  to  Manila  that  Ibarra ,  the  desper¬ 
ate  revolutionist,  trying  to  escape,  has  been  shot  and 
killed.  At  the  word  Maria  Clara  gives  up  all  earthly 
hope  and  flees  to  a  nunnery. 


CHAPTER  VI 


LEONORA  RIVERA 

BY  the  title  of  his  novel  Rizal  meant  not  that  he 
was  touching  a  person  forbidden,  but  a  subject. 
The  words  he  had  found  in  a  Latin  version  of  the  New 
Testament  in  the  passage  where  the  risen  Christ  is 
beheld  by  Mary  Magdalene ;  but  he  used  these  words  in 
a  sense  wholly  different  from  the  scriptural  signifi¬ 
cance.  Conditions  in  the  Philippines  he  had  thought 
of  as  having  become  a  social  cancer  that  persisted  first 
because  of  a  notion  that  nobody  must  treat  or  touch  it. 
Of  all  the  men  of  his  times  and  country,  he  was  the 
only  man  that  had  the  courage  to  break  through  this 
barrier  and  the  skill  and  perfect  knowledge  to  dissect 
the  hideous  growth  behind. 

With  one  of  the  first  copies  that  came  from  the  press 
he  wrote  to  his  close  friend,  Dr.  Blumentritt,  a  letter 
in  which  he  lays  bare  his  own  idea  of  his  work : 1 

The  novel  [he  says]  tells  of  many  things  that  until  now 
have  not  been  touched  upon.  They  are  so  peculiar  to  ourselves 
that  we  have  been  sensitive  about  them.  In  this  book  I  have 
attempted  what  no  one  else  seems  to  have  been  willing  to  do. 
For  one  thing,  I  have  dared  to  answer  the  calumnies  that  for 
centuries  have  been  heaped  upon  us  and  upon  our  country. 
I  have  written  of  the  social  condition  of  the  Philippines  and 
of  the  life  of  the  Filipinos.  I  have  told  the  truth  about  our 

*Retana  prints  the  original  of  this  letter  (in  French)  at  pp.  125-126. 

118 


LEONORA  RIVERA 


119 


beliefs,  our  hopes,  our  longings,  our  complaints,  and  our  sor¬ 
rows.  I  have  tried  to  show  the  difference  between  real  religion 
and  the  hypocrisy  that  under  its  eloak  has  impoverished  and 
brutalized  us.  I  have  brought  out  the  real  meaning  of  the 
dazzling  and  deceptive  words  of  our  countrymen.  I  have 
related  our  mistakes,  our  vices,  and  our  faults.  I  have  ex¬ 
posed  how  weakly  we  accept  miseries  as  inevitable.  Where 
there  has  been  reason  for  it,  I  have  given  praise.  I  have  not 
wept  over  our  misfortunes,  but  rather  laughed  at  them. 

No  one  would  want  to  read  a  book  full  of  tears,  and  then, 
too,  laughter  is  the  best  means  of  concealing  sorrow. 

The  incidents  that  I  have  related  are  all  true  and  have 
actually  occurred. 

But  for  his  habitual  reticence  about  himself  he  might 
have  said  much  more ;  if  he  had  known  his  own  powers 
he  might  have  spoken  of  his  lifelike  delineations;  he 
might  have  urged  a  gift  like  prophecy.  All  the  impres¬ 
sion  of  a  strong  personal  relation  one  has  throughout 
the  reading  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  is  well  founded. 
Into  it  Rizal  was  writing  himself.  Ibarra  was  a  pre¬ 
figuration,  in  somp  respects  marvelously  accurate,  of 
himself  in  the  days  at  hand  when  he  should  return  to 
his  native  country.  Of  the  material  of  the  book  the 
greater  part  had  been  verified  in  his  own  experiences. 
The  imprisonment  of  Ibarra's  father  was  the  story  of 
Rizal’s  own  mother.  Father  Damaso  he  had  seen  and 
watched,  and  Father  Silva  no  less.  In  Tasio,  the  philo¬ 
sophical  evolutionist,  he  had  but  drawn  his  own  elder 
brother,  Paciano.  But  above  all,  the  story  of  Maria 
Clara  was  a  tragedy  from  his  own  life ;  at  that  time  a 
tragedy  he  might  have  feared  but  had  not  as  yet  expe¬ 
rienced,  strange  as  that  may  seem. 


120 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Maria  Clara  is  RizaPs  cousin,  Leonora  Rivera,  his 
sweetheart  and  first  great  disappointment.  She  was 
born  in  Camiling,  province  of  Tarlac,  on  April 
11,  1867,  the  daughter  of  Antonio  Rivera,  who  was 
RizaPs  uncle,  benefactor,  and  ardent  partisan.1  She 
was  twelve  years  old  when  the  family  moved  to  Manila, 
where  they  rented  lodgings  to  students  in  Santo  Tomas 
and  the  Ateneo.  Among  these,  after  a  time,  came 
Cousin  Jose  Rizal,  at  about  the  third  shifting  of  his 
quarters  in  Manila.  Leonora  was  enrolled  as  an 
undergraduate  at  Concordia  College  for  girls,  where 
RizaPs  youngest  sister,  Soledad,  was  likewise  a  stu¬ 
dent.  He  would  sometimes  spend  a  half-holiday  at 
Concordia  to  see  and  to  amuse  his  sister,  whereupon 
he  and  his  beautiful  cousin  became  good  friends, 
although  she  was  six  years  his  junior.  She  was  not  only 
beautiful,  but  she  seems  to  have  had  an  unusual  intel¬ 
lect  of  the  kind  that  would  be  likely  to  attract  Rizal; 
for  she  was  in  fact,  and  not  by  repute  alone,  studious, 
thoughtful,  of  the  Malay  seriousness,  but  with  also  the 
Malay  delight  in  music.  She  sang  well ;  she  is  said  to 
have  played  the  piano  with  a  skill  that  distinguished 
her  even  in  the  corps  of  able  pianists  of  which  Con¬ 
cordia  was  proud.  If  so,  the  eminence  was  not  lightly 
won ;  for  the  worthy  Sisters  that  conducted  that  insti¬ 
tution  taught  music  thoroughly  and  well. 

She  must  have  been  also  of  a  sweet  and  gentle 
spirit;  all  the  memories  extant  of  her  twenty  years 

1  For  most  of  the  information  we  have  of  this  interesting  young  woman 
we  are  indebted  to  Miss  Salud  Sevilla  of  the  College  of  Education, 
University  of  the  Philippines,  who  traced  her  story  and  verified  and 
illuminated  the  incidents  here  related. 


LEONORA  RIVERA 


121 


after  her  death  included  this  tribute.  The  various 
commentators  that  have  differed  often  about  other 
phases  of  Philippine  life  have  been  of  one  mind  in 
praising  the  typical  educated  Filipino  woman  and  yet 
have  not  exaggerated  her  worth.  In  a  world  wearied 
of  artificiality,  her  simple  sincerity  shines  to  cheer  as 
much  as  to  charm.  Visitors  that  have  observed  her 
well  have  usually  noted  the  excellence  of  her  mind,  the 
honesty  of  her  walk,  and  the  reserve  strength  of  her 
character.  RizaPs  mother  was  of  this  order,  the  dili¬ 
gent  ruler  of  the  household,  the  laborious  instructor  of 
her  children;  and,  when  the  blows  of  the  Spanish 
tyranny  fell  upon  her  head,  bearing  them  with  the 
proud  fortitude  of  a  Roman  matron  of  the  republic. 
Doubtless,  the  halo  of  Rizal  and  Leonora’s  own  roman¬ 
tic  story  have  magnified  her  intellectual  stature;  yet 
when  all  allowance  is  made  for  exaggeration  that  may 
color  the  work  of  a  friendly  biographer,  the  fact  is 
apparent  that  she  also  was  of  this  same  admirable 
womanhood. 

The  first  time  she  seems  to  have  suspected  in  herself 
a  feeling  for  her  handsome  young  cousin  stronger  than 
cousinly  regard  was  on  a  day  at  her  father’s  house 
when  the  young  leader  of  the  Filipino  forces  at  the 
Ateneo  was  brought  in  with  a  broken  head  and  covered 
with  dust,  blood,  and  glory.  It  was  not  the  first  time 
he  had  been  so  ornamented,  but  only  the  first  time  she 
had  seen  him  thus.  At  the  sight  of  the  youthful  cham¬ 
pion  of  the  Filipino  people  disabled  early  in  the  fray, 
Leonora  ran  with  speed  to  get  warm  water  and  band¬ 
ages  to  dress  his  hurts.  The  rest  was  easy  and  accord- 


122 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


in g  to  the  formulae  for  such  cases  well  known  and 
accepted.  She  loved  him  for  the  battles  he  waged,  and 
he  loved  her  that  she  nursed  him  so  tenderly. 

A  year  later  with  the  full  approbation  of  their  par¬ 
ents  they  were  betrothed.  Mr.  Rivera  was  fond  of  his 
nephew;  to  the  aunt,  Jose  was  at  least  not  objection¬ 
able,  though  she  seems  to  have  been  a  lady  of  a  cap¬ 
tious  and  changeable  temperament.  It  was  the  uncle 
that  first  suggested  RizaPs  withdrawal  from  the  Phil¬ 
ippines  when  it  became  evident  that  the  governing 
class  had  marked  him  as  a  young  man  to  be  suppressed. 
Mr.  Rivera  knew  well  enough  what  that  would  mean 
in  Santo  Tomas  and  elsewhere:  every  avenue  closed, 
every  possible  obstacle  thrown  in  his  way.  The  malice 
he  had  aroused  he  could  hope  to  defeat  in  some  meas¬ 
ure  if  he  could  win  in  Europe  a  training  and  a  distinc¬ 
tion  that  would  on  his  return  provide  him  with  a 
practice  in  spite  of  Spanish  opposition.  Mr.  Rivera 
assisted  his  flight,  sent  him  money  while  he  was  pur¬ 
suing  his  studies  in  Madrid,  and  showed  at  all  times  a 
sincere  interest  in  his  welfare.  The  lovers  had  a  ten¬ 
der  parting  just  before  Rizal  went  aboard  his  ship  that 
night;  as  a  sign  or  image  of  his  presence  when  he 
should  be  far  away  he  left  with  her  a  poem  that  began : 

The  summons  sounds,  predestinate  and  grim, 

The  iron  clanging  of  the  tongue  of  fate, 

That  drives  me  on  a  pathway  strange  and  dim 
And  strikes  my  flowers  of  hope  all  desolate. 

Thou  know  ’st, — thou  other,  dearer  soul  of  mine — 

How  hard  it  is  to  say  farewell,  and  part; 

Through  clouds  that  darken,  suns  that  shine, 

I  venture — but  I  leave  with  thee  my  heart. 


LEONORA  RIVERA 


123 


At  Madrid  he  wrote  her  regularly  and  with  deep 
affection  and  received  replies  that,  his  diary  says,  gave 
him  unbounded  joy,  as  these  entries  indicate : 

1884.  January  10.  Received  two  letters,  one  from  Uncle 
Antonio  [Leonora’s  father]  and  the  other  from  L.  Nov.  30. 
The  letter  from  Leonora  was  lovely  with  a  sweet  ending. 

January  25.  To-night  I  had  a  sad  dream.  I  returned  to 
the  Philippines,  but  oh,  what  a  sad  reception!  Leonora  had 
been  unfaithful;  an  inexcusable  unfaithfulness  without  any 
remedy. 

April  13.  To-day  I  received  letters  from  Leonora,  Uncle 
Antonio,  and  Changoy.  I  am  well  satisfied  with  what  Leonora 
writes  but  not  with  her  state  of  health.1 

No  trait  is  more  to  be  emphasized  in  observing  the 
Filipino  people  than  their  respect  for  womanhood.  It 
is  hardly  less  than  phenomenal.  In  Burma  the  women 
may  have  as  much  power ;  in  Filipinas  they  have  power 
and  respect  as  well  as  affection.  Rizal  was  all  of  this 
order;  the  most  sacred  object  in  the  world  was  his 
mother;  the  next  most  sacred  the  woman  that  should 
be  his  wife ;  after  her  came  his  sisters.  He  had  devel¬ 
oped  in  advance  of  his  times  a  certain  philosophy  of 
feminism  that  has  since  become  much  more  general. 
In  his  letters  he  dwelt  upon  it.  He  thought  the  Fil¬ 
ipino  woman  might  be  one  of  the  great  instruments  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  country,  exercising  her  power 
and  influence  conscientiously  for  education  and  liberty. 
Therefore,  every  Filipino  woman  ought  to  prepare 
herself  for  this  service  by  utilizing  every  road  to 
knowledge  and  enlarging  her  understanding  of  the 

1  R'etana,  pp.  79-90,  cites  other  references  to  letters  received  from  and 
written  to  Leonora,  indicating  a  prosperous  correspondence. 


124 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


nation  and  its  possibilities.  He  believed  that  a  gen¬ 
eral  effort  on  these  lines  by  the  educated  women  would 
make  a  profound  impression  upon  the  young  and  be 
invaluable  in  the  next  generation. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  flaw  in  his  attachment 
to  Leonora;  his  career  abroad  has  been  searched  in 
vain  for  a  reminiscence  of  an  escapade.  He  lived  a  life 
of  purity  and  that  self-control  that  he  held  to  be  the 
first  demand  of  the  moral  code  he  professed.  Seldom 
has  the  biographer  a  career  like  this  to  write  in  which 
appears  not  enough  of  human  frailty  to  spice  the  nar¬ 
rative.  He  had  made  for  himself  certain  rules  of  con¬ 
duct — abstemiousness,  temperance,  chastity,  no  wasting 
of  time,  no  wasting  of  health — and  to  these  he  adhered 
with  the  stern  inflexibility  of  an  ascetic.  The  artist  is 
usually  saved,  says  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  by  his 
devotion  to  beauty.  Rizal  was  an  artist,  and  never  has 
knelt  before  the  ideal  of  beauty  a  worshiper  more 
devout.  The  beauty  of  righteousness  seemed  to  rule 
out  of  him  all  promptings  to  the  coltish  excesses  of 
youth;  that,  and  the  dignity  of  his  love,  and  his  con¬ 
ception  of  the  gravity  of  his  mission.  He  that  is  called 
to  bring  light  to  his  people  must  not  linger  at  the  way- 
side  inn  nor  ruin  their  hopes  by  capitulation  to  man’s 
grosser  senses. 

Meantime,  the  Riveras  had  moved  from  Manila  to 
Dagupan,  in  the  province  then  called  Laguna.  The 
reputation  that  Rizal  had  left  behind  him  was  not  bet¬ 
tered  by  the  handling  it  had  from  the  governing  class 
after  his  flight.  Evil  propaganda  has  always  been 
easy  to  great  power  in  any  form.  In  his  absence  the 
spies  and  agents  provocateurs  of  the  Government 


LEONORA  RIVERA 


125 


made  it  but  the  day’s  work  to  smear  with  lies  the  name 
of  Rizal.  1 ‘  Some  of  it  will  stick,  ’ ’  is  the  philosophy  of 
the  professional  slanderer.  In  this  case  the  word 
proved  true  enough.  Mrs.  Rivera  seems  to  have  been 
much  affected  by  the  sad  decline  and  fall  of  her  pro¬ 
spective  son-in-law.  She  was  an  excellent  lady  but  one 
that  set  exaggerated  store  by  the  verdict  of  society  and 
what  Shelley  called  the  great  god  ‘ i  They  Say.  ’  ’  Among 
all  colonists  everywhere  this  is  a  deity  of  might.  With 
the  slender  group  of  Filipinos  that  strove  to  grasp  the 
skirts  of  a  society  drawn  disdainfully  away  from  them, 
the  cult  amounted  sometimes  to  a  frenzy. 

The  reports  that  came  from  Madrid  about  Leono¬ 
ra’s  lover,  or  were  affirmed  to  come  thence,  were  no 
salve  to  the  mother’s  wounded  sensibilities.  He  was 
said  to  associate  with  sad  young  dogs,  revolutionists 
and  outcasts  and  all  that,  with  Filipinos  that  had  been 
exiled  after  the  governmental  sand-dance  of  1872  and 
with  other  agencies  of  treason.  The  thought  of  the 
career  that  such  a  man  would  probably  have  in  the 
Philippines  seems  to  have  struck  Mrs.  Rivera  with 
inexpressible  terror.  What  her  friends  and  social  co¬ 
mates  would  say  when  her  daughter  should  be  mar¬ 
ried  to  one  sure  to  be  a  pariah  if  not  a  victim  of  the 
garrote  was  beyond  her  strength  to  endure. 

She  had  also  the  strange  notion  that  steals  into  the 
minds  of  some  subjugated  people  that  intermarriage 
with  the  dominant  color  promises  relief  from  the  sting 
of  inferiority.  About  this  time  the  railroad  was  being 
extended  to  Dagupan,  and  a  young  English  engineer, 
Henry  C.  Kipping,  came  to  take  charge  of  the  building 
of  the  last  section  of  the  new  line  from  Bayambang. 


126 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


His  work  took  him  often  to  Dagupan,  where  he  met  and 
fell  in  love  with  Leonora.  He  seems  to  have  urged  his 
suit  with  ardor  and  persistence  and  to  have  had  from 
the  beginning  an  adroit  partisan  in  Leonora’s  mother. 
Here  had  come,  as  if  by  the  order  of  Providence,  a 
means  to  save  her  daughter  from  an  unhappy  mar¬ 
riage.  How  much  better  to  wed  an  English  engineer 
than  a  Filipino  agitator!  With  joy  she  seized  every 
opportunity  to  praise  the  ingenious  Kipping,  gave 
thanks  (for  she  was  of  a  resolute  devotion)  to  the  wis¬ 
dom  that  had  arranged  all  this,  and  even  prepared  to 
give  it  help  of  her  own  devising.1 

Cold  fell  her  eulogies  on  Leonora’s  ears.  When 
Kipping  talked  love  to  her  she  told  him  frankly  that 
she  was  engaged  to  marry  Rizal,  whom  she  loved  and 
would  always  love,  and  that  another  suitor  was  for  her 
impossible. 

Nothing  in  Kipping’s  reports  of  these  chilly  recep¬ 
tions  daunted  Mrs.  Rivera,  her  heart  being  set  on  this 
match.  She  knew  well  the  weight  of  parental  author¬ 
ity  among  her  people.  Also,  she  had  faith  in  the 
effects  of  absence,  if  judiciously  interpreted  and 
assisted.  She  can  hardly  have  read  the  novels  of 
Charles  Reade,  but  that  eminent  author  would  have 
found  in  her  a  character  all  made  to  his  mind.  She 
now  had  resort  to  an  expedient  that  was  one  of 
favorite  practice  among  his  own  villains.  Many  a 
reader  of  his  it  has  left  cold,  deeming  it  impossible  or 
extravagant.  Behold,  then,  vindication  for  the  novel¬ 
ist,  and  straight  from  history.  Mrs.  Rivera  augmented 
the  glacial  effects  of  separation  by  stopping  all  letters 

1  Craig,  pp.  217-218. 


LEONORA  RIVERA 


127 


between  the  young  lovers.  To  this  end  she  bribed  two 
postal  clerks.1  For  a  monthly  stipend  they  agreed  to 
bring  to  her  all  the  letters  that  Leonora  wrote  to  Jose 
and  all  the  letters  that  Jose  wrote  to  Leonora. 

Months  went  by  and  not  a  word  came  from  Madrid. 
Leonora  began  to  droop  under  the  suspense.  Skilfully 
and  industriously  her  mother  plied  her  with  insinua¬ 
tions  and  the  wise  shaking  of  the  head  so  eloquent  to 
the  anxious.  We  could  and  if  we  would,  and  that  line 
of  ambiguous  givings  out.  At  last,  she  openly  declared 
that  Rizal  had  found  another  sweetheart.  Leonora 
hysterically  affirmed  her  faith  in  her  lover.  But  the 
physical  fact  persisted  that  mail  after  mail  arrived 
from  Spain  and  not  a  line  from  Rizal.  “He  is  sick,” 
said  Leonora,  “and  I  am  here,  I  cannot  take  care  of 
him.”  The  next  time  the  expected  letter  failed  she 
said  deliberately,  “I  know  Jose.  He  has  given  his 
word.  He  will  die  before  he  breaks  it.” 

The  mother  seems  to  have  known  how  to  beat  down 
this  spirit.  At  last  she  brought  to  an  issue  the  slow, 
sure  undermining  in  which  she  had  been  employing 
her  wits.  “If  you  truly  love  me,  you  ought  to  remem¬ 
ber  that,  after  God,  you  owe  to  me  all  you  are,  and 
after  God,  then,  you  owe  me  your  duty.  I  urge  this 
marriage,  not  because  it  means  anything  to  me,  but 
because  I  am  your  mother.  I  seek  your  true  happi¬ 
ness.  All  the  hope  of  my  life  is  centered  upon  it.  Do 
you  wish  to  kill  your  mother?” 

At  this,  Leonora  capitulated.  So  great  is  the  mater¬ 
nal  influence  in  the  Filipino  household  it  is  likely  that 
most  other  Filipino  girls  in  the  same  conditions  would 

1  Miss  Sevilla. 


128 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


have  yielded.  According  to  Miss  Sevilla,  Leonora’s 
sympathetic  biographer,  the  daughter  now  fell  into  the 
mother’s  arms  and  said: 

“I  owe  you  my  life;  I  will  sacrifice  it  for  you,  and 
make  this  marriage  as  you  wish,  but  you  will  find  that 
I  shall  not  live  long  after  it.  In  return,  I  ask  you 
three  things,  that  I  shall  not  again  be  asked  to  play  or 
to  sing,  that  my  piano  shall  be  kept  locked,  and  that 
you  shall  be  at  my  side  when  I  am  married.,,  1 

The  next  day  she  burned  the  letters  she  had  received 
from  Rizal  before  her  mother  had  interfered  with  her 
happiness.  Following  a  Filipino  custom,  she  put  the 
ashes  into  a  little  box  which  she  covered  with  a  piece  of 
the  dress  she  had  worn  when  she  was  betrothed  and  a 
piece  of  the  dress  she  had  worn  when  she  yielded  to 
her  mother  about  Kipping.  The  box  is  still  in  exis¬ 
tence.  It  bears  on  its  covers  the  letters  “J”  and  “L” 
worked  in  gold.2 

The  wedding  was  fixed  for  June  17,  at  Dagupan.  A 
few  days  before  this  date,  Mrs.  Rivera  was  called  to 
Manila  by  some  business  transaction  in  which  she  must 
take  a  part.  She  seems  to  have  forgotten  the  postal 
clerks,  or  they  to  have  forgotten  their  employment; 
for  while  she  was  gone  a  letter  arrived  from  Rizal  to 
Leonora,  and  it  fell  into  her  hands.  She  opened  it  with 
wonder  and  trembling,  and  lo !  it  was  filled  with  tender 
reproaches  for  her  long  silence.  He  had  written  to  her 
regularly  by  every  mail,  but  all  these  months  had  come 
not  a  word  in  answer.  Had  she  forgotten  him? 

The  next  scene  may  be  deemed  to  justify  the 

1  Miss  Sevilla. 

2  Craig,  p.  219,  and  Miss  Sevilla. 


THE  ORIGINAL  COVER  OF  THE  GREAT  NOVEL,  a  NOLI  ME 

tangere” 

Rizal’s  work.  Note  its  elaborateness 


LEONORA  RIVERA 


129 


writers  both  of  fiction  and  of  melodrama.  Leonora 
waited  in  silence  until  her  mother  returned  from 
Manila,  for  her  quick  intelligence  showed  her  unerr¬ 
ingly  who  had  been  the  author  of  this  wreck  of  her 
happiness.  The  moment  her  mother  opened  the  door 
the  storm  broke.  Leonora,  for  once,  defied  the  re¬ 
straint  the  Filipino  girl  must  traditionally  feel  in  the 
presence  of  her  parents  and  spared  nobody  in  her 
passionate  denunciation  of  the  treachery  of  which  she 
had  been  the  victim.  Mrs.  Rivera  seems  to  have 
admitted  everything  and  borne  with  composure  the 
whirlwind  of  her  daughter’s  wrath.  She  knew  that  the 
discovery  had  come  too  late  to  disturb  her  own  suc¬ 
cess.  The  wedding  was  close  at  hand,  the  banns  had 
been  cried,  the  guests  invited,  the  peculiar  Filipino 
pride  was  involved  and  her  daughter  would  hold  to 
her  word. 

Kipping  was  baptized  and  became  a  Catholic.  The 
wedding  took  place  at  the  appointed  hour.  Afterward 
some  of  her  relatives  recalled  that  it  was  a  ceremony 
without  joy  or  good  omens.  They  said  that  from  it 
the  bride  returned  in  a  state  of  chill  lassitude.  Con¬ 
trary  to  her  mother’s  hopes,  the  marriage  proved  un¬ 
happy,  and  Leonora  survived  it  only  two  years. 


CHAPTER  VII 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

STILL  unaware  of  the  ruin  that  had  come  upon  his 
hopes,  Rizal  was  living  in  Berlin  and  working  on 
the  last  chapters  of  4  ‘  Noli  Me  Tangere.”  He  had 
taken  cheap  lodging  in  one  of  those  huge  modern  Ger¬ 
man  apartment-houses,  in  the  complex  depths  of  which 
he  could  bury  himself,  press  on  with  his  work,  and  be 
as  remote  as  Tahaiti.  He  had  known  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  that  he  must  bring  out  his  book  at  his  own 
expense,  poor  as  he  was,  if  it  was  to  be  published  at 
all.  To  a  European  publisher  the  subject  would  seem 
too  unconventional  and  outlandish;  and  as  for  the 
Philippines,  not  a  printer  there  would  venture  on  his 
life  to  so  much  as  look  at  it.  The  type  was  set  (in 
Spanish)  in  a  small  job-office  not  far  from  RizaPs 
lodging.  Of  the  report  that  he  himself  eked  out  his 
remittances  by  working  at  times  as  a  compositor  in 
this  shop,  there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence;  he  had 
not  previously  appeared  as  a  printer,  but  with  his  mar¬ 
velous  dexterity  and  ease  in  assimilating  all  knowledge 
he  might  have  picked  up  even  this  craft,  too,  with 
others,  difficult  as  it  is.  If  so,  he  may  have  enjoyed  in 
Berlin  an  unusual  experience.  He  may  have  been  an 
author  putting  into  type  his  own  copy. 

One  problem  had  harassed  him.  Whence  could  he 

130 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


131 


hope  to  get  the  money  to  pay  for  the  publication?  He 
was  still  largely  supported  by  remittances  from  home, 
from  Paciano  the  ever  faithful,  from  other  members 
of  his  family;  but  these  were  not  more  than  enough 
to  keep  him  alive.  The  Fates  that  packed  his  wallet 
so  full  of  other  good  gifts  seem  to  have  omitted  a 
facility  in  making  money,  but  supplied  in  its  stead  an 
abnormal  power  of  self-denial.  He  now  started  out  to 
save  the  sum  he  needed  by  inciting  the  spirit  to  tri¬ 
umph  over  the  flesh.  About  this  time  there  came  to 
visit  him  in  Berlin  Maximo  Viola,  a  wealthy  and  excel¬ 
lent  young  Filipino  he  had  known  in  Madrid.  Viola 
records  that  he  found  the  young  author  living  in  a  rear 
room  and  subsisting  upon  one  meal  a  day,  largely 
bread  and  coffee,1  which  were  cheap. 

The  raven  had  come  that  was  not  only  to  feed  this 
prophet  but  to  lead  him  out  of  the  wilderness.  Viola  ’s 
object  had  been  to  invite  Rizal  to  go  with  him  upon  a 
walking  tour  through  rural  Germany  and  Switzerland. 
At  the  proposal,  Rizal ’s  eyes  blazed;  no  project  could 
be  more  alluring  to  him,  as  Viola  had  well  known. 
Then  he  said  that  it  was  impossible ;  he  could  not  go. 
Why  impossible?  asked  Viola.  Native  pride  forbade 
any  direct  answer,  but  Viola  extracted  the  truth.  He 
was  saving  money  to  publish  a  book.  What  kind  of  a 
book?  Rizal  told  him,  whereupon  the  Filipino  blood 
stirred  in  Viola’s  veins  also,  and  he  offered  on  the  spot 
to  advance  enough  money  to  bring  out  the  book  and 
then  enough  to  take  Rizal  on  the  walking  tour. 

A  few  weeks  later,  “Noli  Me  Tangere,”  a  finished 


1  A  fact  communicated  by  Mr.  Fernando  Canon. 


132 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


novel  of  five  hundred  pages,  was  printed  and  bound 
and  launched  upon  its  eventful  way.1 

The  facts  about  this  man  would  stagger  credulity  if 
they  were  not  of  so  sure  and  recent  record.  This  novel 
of  his  contains  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  words. 
He  obtained  his  medical  licentiate  at  Madrid  in  June, 
1885,  and  nothing  of  his  book  had  been  written  then; 
nothing  was  written  until  months  later.  After  a  time 
he  went  to  Paris,  where  he  was  employed  as  a  clinical 
assistant  to  a  busy  oculist  and  also  in  pursuing  his 
studies.  Thence  he  went  first  to  Heidelberg,  then  to 
Leipzig,  where  he  entered  the  universities.  Next  we 
find  him  in  Berlin, ‘again  an  active  and  laborious  stu¬ 
dent.  Yet  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  was  completed  on  Feb¬ 
ruary  21,  1887.  The  thing  does  not  seem  to  be  in 
nature.  We  cannot  recall  another  instance  in  litera¬ 
ture  of  such  rapid  composition  under  the  like  condi¬ 
tions  of  distraction. 

It  was  a  stormy  petrel  that  he  had  set  free,  and 
trouble  began  early  because  of  and  around  it.  His  first 
object  was  to  circulate  it  in  the  Philippines.  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  unpromising,  with  a  censorship 
keeping  watch  and  ward  and  an  author  loathed  and 
feared  by  the  whole  System.  Yet  he  accomplished  the 
difficult  feat.  He  had  stout  friends  in  Barcelona  and 
Madrid,  Fernando  Canon,  Mariano  Ponce,  Damaso 
Ponce,  Ramon  Batle,  and,  in  especial,  Teresina  Batle, 
who  was  Mr.  Canon’s  sweetheart.  Her  quick  wit 
helped  the  conspiracy.  Rizal  sent  to  Mr.  Batle  certain 

1  The  title-page  bears  this  imprint :  ‘  ‘  Berlin,  Berliner  buchdruckerei- 
actien-geselschaf  t.  ’  ’ 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


133 


boxes  containing  copies  of  his  book.  These  his  friends 
disguised  as  dry-goods  and  the  like  innocent  freight 
and  forwarded  to  Manila.  Ramon  Egnarras  and  Alej¬ 
andro  Rojas  were  Manila  proprietors  of  substance  and 
good  repute.  They  smuggled  the  boxes  past  the  official 
Argus  and  before  his  very  face.1  When  the  authorities 
awoke,  the  fierce  new  appeal  was  going  from  house  to 
house  with  ominous  rumblings  in  its  wake. 

This  could  not  last  long.  To  know  what  the  sub¬ 
merged  people  were  reading  and  thinking  was  one  of 
the  chief  businesses  of  the  bureau  of  spies  and  depart¬ 
ment  of  sleuthing.  Soon  the  censor  was  hot  upon  the 
trail  of  this  omen  of  unrest.  A  copy  of  the  book  was 
brought  to  him ;  he  read  it  with  a  horror  that  seems  to 
have  shaken  his  soul.  Now  the  attention  of  Gov¬ 
ernment  was  called  to  the  scandalous  work.  Govern¬ 
ment,  ever  responsive  to  such  ill  news,  appointed  a 
committee  of  solemn  owls  from  the  faculty  of  Santo 
Tomas,  no  less,  to  study  and  report  upon  a  literary 
felony  so  momentous;  Government  being  apparently 
impressed  with  the  notion  that  a  crisis  was  near  and 
revolution  was  to  be  crushed  as  usual  in  the  serpent’s 
egg.  For  this  nothing  could  be  so  effective  as  the 
weight  of  an  awe-inspiring  authority  from  the  univer¬ 
sity.  No  great  deliberation  was  needed  to  enable  the 
committee  to  reach  its  findings.  In  what  was  plainly 
intended  to  be  a  blasting  fire  of  ecclesiastical  wrath, 
book  and  author  were  condemned,  and  Government 
was  austerely  warned  that  here  was  a  most  insidious 
and  perilous  attack  upon  all  the  safeguards  of  society, 

1  Mr.  Canon  ’a  manuscript. 


134 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


upon  law  and  order,  civilization,  monarchy,  the 
supremacy  of  Spain,  business,  holy  church,  and  religion 
itself.1 

Long  experimentation  with  the  surviving  methods  of 
the  Inquisition  had  made  the  Government  expert  in 
these  matters.  It  issued  at  once  a  decree  excluding 
from  the  pious  Islands  a  work  of  such  sacrilege  and 
ordered  diligent  search  to  be  made  for  any  copies  that 
might  have  slipped  in  to  corrupt  virtue  and  overthrow 
the  king.  Wherever  such  copies  might  be  found  they 
were  to  be  burned  by  the  public  executioner.  Most 
rigorous  punishments  waited  upon  the  heels  of  this 
decree.  Any  Filipino  found  after  a  certain  date  in 
possession  of  a  copy  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  was  to 
suffer  imprisonment  or  deportation,  with  the  loss  of 
all  his  property;  this  to  be  confiscated  for  the  benefit 
of  whomsoever  should  inform  against  him.  Despite  all 
this  valorous  resolving  and  proclaiming  and  shaking 
of  the  long  ears  of  senile  decrepitude,  the  book  con¬ 
tinued  to  come  in  and  to  be  circulated.  One  may  sus¬ 
pect  that  what  the  Government  chiefly  effected  was 
gratuitous  advertisement.  In  a  short  time  “Noli  Me 
Tangere”  became  the  first  topic  of  conversation 
throughout  the  educated  circles  in  the  islands.  The 
classes  whose  vices  and  villainies  were  most  fiercely 
attacked  in  it  were  its  most  determined  readers.  Let 
the  Government  do  its  utmost  to  annihilate  the  book ;  in 
the  teeth  of  decrees,  Civil  Guards,  spies,  and  inquisi¬ 
tors,  Rizal’s  purposes  were  already  accomplished. 
The  corrupt,  greedy,  tyrannical  friar,  the  plundering, 
swaggering,  brutal  Spanish  officer,  the  beneficiaries  of 

1  Retana  gives  the  findings  and  the  letter  of  the  archbishop,  pp.  128-130. 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES  135 

the  System  and  those  consenting  to  it,  saw  themselves 
for  the  first  time  pilloried  in  print.1 

About  this  process  is  always  something  more  potent 
and  salutary  than  can  be  easily  explained.  It  is  the 
elusive,  indomitable  spirit  of  that  pitiless  publicity,  at 
once  the  armed  champion  of  modern  social  progress, 
the  healer  of  its  diseases,  and  the  corrector  of  its 
errors.  Suppose  the  social  malefactor  to  know  full 
well,  as  well  as  he  knows  anything,  that  when  he  reads 
in  print  the  story  of  his  misdeeds  not  one  hundred 
other  persons  are  likely  to  see  it;  he  is  shaken  with 
ineffable  alarm,  nevertheless.  The  magic  of  the 
printed  page  overwhelms  and  confounds  him;  in  his 
ear  every  type-letter  is  a  separate  demon  yelling 
‘  ‘  Scoundrel !  ’  ’  Suppose  him  to  have  known  thereto¬ 
fore  that  one  hundred  thousand  men  were  saying 
among  themselves  this  that  he  now  reads  in  print ;  the 
knowledge  would  have  disturbed  him  not  to  the  quiver 
of  an  eyelash.  But  to  have  it  thus  in  visible  record, 
open  to  the  world’s  eye — intolerable!  Many  a  man 
case-hardened  otherwise  to  conscience  or  reproof  has 
fled  to  suicide  before  that  unwavering  finger  and 
relentless  condemnation. 

The  life  of  all  this  is  truth.  Against  printed  words 
that  are  not  true  even  the  guilty  can  make  a  stand,  but 
it  is  invincible  verity  that  leaves  him  naked  and  trem¬ 
bling.  When  the  first  cold  shiver  had  gone  by  of  the 
discovery  that  some  one  had  at  last  dared  to  put  into 
print  the  horror  of  the  Philippines,  one  cry  for  ven¬ 
geance  went  up  from  the  stripped  and  shamed  ex¬ 
ploiters.  It  was  a  cry  like  the  angry  snarl  of  hurt 

1  Derbyshire,  p.  xxxiii. 


136 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


hyenas,  ready  to  tear  into  pieces  whomsoever  should 
fall  into  their  den. 

Presently  there  came  among  them  the  very  man  of 
their  desire,  the  author  of  all  this,  the  object  of  all 
their  furious  hatred;  unsuspectingly  he  walked  into 
their  jungle. 

When  he  had  finished  his  book  Rizal  felt  free  to 
make  the  excursion  Viola  had  proposed.  They 
tramped  together  through  remote  Germany  and  saw 
something  of  Switzerland  and  of  Austria.  Rizal,  as 
he  went,  studied  peasant  life,  and  diligently  he  com¬ 
pared  it  with  the  conditions  of  the  Philippine  farmers. 
At  the  end  of  the  tour,  he  went  to  Dresden.  There  he 
found  that  by  reputation  he  was  already  known  to  Dr. 
A.  B.  Meyer  and  other  scientists,  most  of  whom  speed¬ 
ily  became  his  friends.1 

For  some  weeks  the  museums  of  Dresden  detained 
him;  now  the  splendid  collection  of  pictures,  and  now 
the  unusual  specimens  in  the  zoological  and  ethnologi¬ 
cal  museums.  Thence  he  passed  to  Leitmeritz,  old 
Bohemia,  where  he  began  that  close  and  intimate 
friendship  with  Dr.  Ferdinand  Blumentritt,  the  famous 
ethnologist,  that  was  to  last  so  long  as  Rizal  lived. 
For  months  they  had  been  in  correspondence;  they 
had  even  progressed  in  their  letters  to  the  stage  of  a 
more  than  ordinary  esteem ;  for  Rizal,  as  we  have  seen, 
having  so  many  other  good  gifts,  had  also  this  abund¬ 
antly,  that  he  could  cause  his  real  self  to  shine  through 
the  imperfect  medium  of  the  written  word  and  make  it 
appear  what  it  was,  a  spirit  of  power  and  grace.  That 
he  might  be  identified  at  the  station  by  his  Austrian 

1  Craig,  p.  131;  Retana,  p.  135. 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


137 


friend,  Rizal  sent  in  advance  a  pencil-sketch  he  had 
made  of  himself,  and  with  this  in  hand  Dr.  Bhimentritt 
knew  him  instantly.  The  high  opinion  the  elder  scien¬ 
tist  had  formed  of  RizaPs  character  and  talents  must 
have  been  justified  upon  closer  acquaintance;  it  ap¬ 
pears  that  Rizal  spent  most  of  his  time  at  the  Blumen- 
tritts’,  and  Mrs.  Blumentritt  signified  her  approbation 
of  him  by  cooking  for  him  rare  old-time  Bohemian 
dainties,  unknown  to  the  restaurants  and  hotels.1 
Thence  to  Vienna,  where  he  became  intimate  with 
Nordenfels,  the  Austrian  novelist,  and  met  other  men 
prominent  in  literature  and  art.  Upon  all  these  he 
seems  to  have  left  the  uniform  impress  of  a  mind 
strong,  capacious,  and  candid,  and  a  soul  disciplined 
and  enlightened. 

His  studies  in  Vienna  completed,  he  passed  into 
Italy,  and  in  a  few  weeks  was  pondering  the  antiquities 
of  Rome.  Reviewing  there  his  observations  and 
researches  in  so  many  lands,  he  concluded  that  the 
time  had  come  for  him  to  return  to  the  Philippines. 
The  irregularity  of  his  passport  by  which  he  had 
escaped  from  Manila  he  had  since  corrected;  legally, 
he  was  as  free  as  any  one  else  to  travel  in  the  Islands. 
His  objective  had  been  won;  he  had  made  good  use  of 
his  time.  He  might  even  have  congratulated  himself 
on  the  diligence  of  his  service.  Consecration  and  an 
almost  prodigious  industry  had  made  him  one  of  the 
foremost  scholars  of  the  day;  he  must  now  put  to  use 
the  resources  he  had  gathered  for  the  chief  purpose 
of  aiding  his  people.  If  we  knew  more  about  his  dis¬ 
astrous  romance  we  might  possibly  find  that  Leonora’s 

1  Craig,  p.  133. 


138 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


silence  had  become  a  motive  to  draw  him  home.  What 
we  do  know  is  that  he  was  distressed  by  the  reports 
he  had  of  his  mother’s  failing  eyesight  and  eager  to 
return  to  her  and  help  her.  For  months  a  double  cata¬ 
ract  had  been  growing  upon  her  eyes.  He  felt  sure 
that  he  could  remove  it  and  restore  her  vision :  it  was 
to  this  branch  of  optical  surgery  that  he  had  given 
most  heed.  From  Rome  he  sped  to  Marseilles,  took 
steamer  on  July  3,  1887,  for  Saigon,  and  transhipped 
for  Manila.  On  August  5,  after  five  years  of  wan¬ 
derings  and  so  many  triumphs,  he  saw  once  more  the 
green  tide  of  the  Pasig. 

As  soon  as  he  landed  he  hastened  to  his  mother  at 
Calamba  and,  laying  aside  every  other  business, 
devoted  himself  to  the  care  of  her  eyes.  With  entire 
success  he  performed  the  operation  he  had  intended, 
the  first  of  the  kind  ever  done  in  the  Philippines. 
The  fame  of  Mrs.  Mercado’s  healing  speedily  went 
throughout  all  the  Islands  and  beyond.  In  the  opinion 
of  most  persons  of  that  day  and  region  it  meant  that, 
by  a  miracle  as  of  old,  sight  had  been  restored  to  the 
blind ;  and,  at  a  word,  Rizal  stepped  into  eminence  and 
a  great  practice.  Of  this  he  was  not  unworthy.  As  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  see  later,  he  was  well  aware  of 
his  skill  and  learning;  and,  so  far  as  the  Orient  was 
concerned,  he  eclipsed  all  previous  practitioners. 
Patients  came  to  him  with  confidence  from  all  parts  of 
the  Philippines  and  even  from  China. 

He  had  time  to  renew  some  of  his  old  friendships, 
notably  with  Fernando  Canon,  who  had  been  fellow- 
student  with  him  in  old  Spain  and  later  one  of  the 
most  effective  agents  in  getting  “Noli  Me  Tangere” 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


139 


into  the  Islands,  whither  he  had  lately  returned.  Some 
of  the  boxes  that  contained  copies  of  the  book  had  been 
passed  in  as  Mr.  Canon’s  stores.  One  day,  walking  up 
and  down  with  him  at  Calamba,  Rizal  revealed  how 
nearly  the  world  had  come  to  the  loss  of  this  work : 

“I  did  not  believe  ‘Noli  Me  Tangere’  would  ever  be 
published.  I  was  in  Berlin,  heartbroken  with  sadness  1 
and  weakened  and  discouraged  from  hunger  and  dep¬ 
rivation.  I  was  on  the  point  of  throwing  my  work  into 
the  fire  as  a  thing  accursed  and  fit  only  to  die.  And 
then  came  the  telegram  from  Viola.  It  revived  me; 
it  gave  me  new  hope.  I  went  to  the  station  to  receive 
him  and  spoke  to  him  about  my  work.  He  said  he 
might  be  able  to  help  me.  I  reflected  and  then  decided 
to  shorten  the  book  and  eliminated  whole  chapters. 
So  he  found  it  much  more  concise  than  it  had  been. 
This  accounts  for  the  loose  pages  of  manuscript  to 
which  you  have  referred.  But  these  will  have  a  place 
in  the  continuation. 

“I  will  publish  seven  volumes  about  Philippine  con¬ 
ditions.  Then  if  I  do  not  succeed  in  awakening  my 
countrymen,  I  will  shoot  myself.”  2 

To  his  account  of  this  incident  Mr.  Canon  adds : 

“Still  there  vibrates  in  my  ears  the  inflections  of 
his  voice  as  he  said  this.  One  could  recognize  Rizal 
anywhere  by  the  tones  of  his  voice.” 

In  the  midst  of  his  busy  employments,  there  fell 
upon  him,  early  in  1888,  a  summons  to  Manila  to  appear 
before  Governor-General  Terrero. 

1  By  this  time,  no  doubt,  he  surmised  that  his  love-affair  had  gone 
wrong,  but  he  had  no  final  confirmation  of  this  misadventure  until  he 
reached  Manila. 

2  Mr.  Canon ’s  manuscript. 


140 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


This  ominous  message  was  the  first  repercussion 
from  “Noli  Me  Tangere”;  the  classes  affronted  in 
that  book  and  burning  for  revenge  were  moving  to 
secure  it.  Here  between  the  claws  of  their  System 
was  the  man  they  hated ;  it  would  go  hard  if  he  escaped 
where  so  many  lesser  men  had  perished.  With  what 
feelings  he  obeyed  the  summons  he  has  not  told  us, 
but  there  can  be  hardly  a  doubt  that  he  knew  by  whose 
manceuvers  he  was  now  in  the  toils.  It  is  the  most 
singular  fact  in  his  whole  strange  career  that  he  never 
betrayed  the  least  concern  as  to  what  should  become 
of  him  and  throughout  whatsoever  process  might  be 
instituted  against  him  behaved  as  if  it  were  the  trial 
of  another  person  of  which  he  was  only  the  moder¬ 
ately  interested  witness.  It  was  so  now.  With  un¬ 
ruffled  self-possession  he  passed  before  the  governor- 
general.  Terrero  told  him  bluntly  of  the  report  of  the 
committee  appointed  to  examine  “Noli  Me  Tangere.” 
Rizal  observed  that  the  examination  must  have  been 
faulty,  for  the  book  was  not  what  the  committee  had 
called  it  but  innocent.  He  made  so  able  a  defense 
that  Terrero  said  finally  that  as  for  himself  he  had 
read  no  more  of  it  than  the  extracts  the  committee 
had  cited  in  its  report,  but  now  he  should  like  to  read 
it  all  and  judge  for  himself,  and  asked  for  a  copy  of 
it.  This  modest  request  being  (despite  all  fierce 
decrees)  complied  with,  the  governor-general  hemmed 
a  little  and  said  he  feared  that  great  enmity  had  been 
aroused  against  Rizal  among  the  classes  he  had 
described.  It  was  enmity  that  might  even  go  so  far  as 
to  attempt  the  author’s  life.  For  his  safety,  therefore, 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


141 


it  had  been  deemed  wise  to  assign  to  him  a  body-gnard 
so  long  as  he  should  remain  in  the  Islands. 

Of  this  labored  device  Rizal  might  have  said  that  it 
was  but  glass,  and  the  very  sun  shone  through  it. 
Henceforth  every  movement  he  made  was  to  be 
watched  and  reported,  and  here  was  the  spy  provided 
by  the  Government,  clumsy-clever,  as  usual,  and 
forcible-feeble.1 

Yet  even  this  incident,  as  things  fell  out,  was  to  con¬ 
tribute  something  to  his  fame  and  little  joy  to  his 
ettiemies.  The  body-guard  assigned  to  him  was  a 
young  Spaniard,  Lieutenant  Jose  de  Andrade,  born 
into  the  governing  class  and  fulfilled  with  all  Spanish 
prejudices.  Although  his  associates  were  of  the  type 
that  Rizal  had  so  mercilessly  pilloried,  so  that  in 
i ‘ Noli  Me  Tangere”  he  could  hardly  fail  to  recognize 
portraits  of  intimate  friends,  Lieutenant  de  Andrade 
could  not  more  than  other  men  withstand  the  singu¬ 
larly  magnetic  charm  of  this  unusual  personality.2 
From  his  initial  status  as  official  spy  and  watch-dog, 
he  became  RizaPs  devoted  friend.  Together  they  took 
long  walking  trips  into  the  country,  climbed  moun¬ 
tains,  compared  notes  and  experiences,  and  recited 
verses.  It  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  lieutenant 
returned  the  reports  he  was  assigned  to  make,  but 
reasonably  certain  that  they  contained  no  matter  that 
gratified  the  hatred  of  the  reactionary  element. 

We  have  noted  what  frenzy  of  consternation  seized 
upon  that  element  at  the  lightest  whisper  of  revolt 

1  Derbyshire,  p.  xxxiv. 

*  Craig,  p.  137;  Eetana,  pp.  144-145. 


142 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


among  the  oppressed  people.  It  was  one  of  the  invari¬ 
able  characteristics  of  the  Spanish  domination,  an 
intermittent  fever  under  the  empire  of  which  all 
reason  or  semblance  of  reason  went  to  the  winds  and 
men  outside  the  asylums  acted  like  raving  maniacs. 
Such  manifestations  of  this  strange  psychology  (only 
to  be  explained  by  recalling  the  Spaniard’s  total  mis¬ 
understanding  of  the  Filipino  nature)  as  followed  the 
uprising  of  1872  were  still  remembered  by  oppressor 
and  oppressed.  It  was  now  revived  for  both  as  knowl¬ 
edge  spread  of  this  strange  and  powerful  book. 
Besides  the  unendurable  smart  of  its  lash,  the  govern¬ 
ing  class  saw  in  it  consequences  of  the  gravest  import. 
It  was  standing  and  irrefutable  evidence  that  the  con¬ 
tempt  for  the  native  upon  which  Spanish  rule  pro¬ 
ceeded  was  baseless ;  a  native  had  created  literature 
of  the  highest  order.  Still  more  alarming,  it  threat¬ 
ened  to  lead  the  way,  to  offer  the  example,  to  pioneer 
ceaseless  ambuscades  of  the  same  kind,  to  show  that 
the  thing  superstitiously  held  to  be  above  all  attack 
could  be  attacked  safely  and  even  with  ridicule  and 
this  deadly  laughter.  If  the  author  of  “Noli  Me 
Tangere”  should  escape  without  punishment,  imitators 
might  be  expected  on  every  side.  Any  native  any¬ 
where  might  take  up  similar  weapons ;  hence,  the  white 
man’s  supremacy  in  all  the  East  was  in  jeopardy. 

It  is  not  easy  for  the  Occidental  mind  to  grasp  the 
power  this  suggestion  has  upon  men  charged  with  the 
holding  in  subjection  of  vast  Asiatic  populations;  but 
it  is  to  such  men  always  the  first  consideration.  It 
must  be,  in  fact;  because  their  situation  is  so  abnor¬ 
mal  that  in  times  of  cool  reflection  they  must  wonder 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


143 


at  themselves.  With  bands  of  soldiers  insignificant  in 
numbers  they  are  required  to  impose  upon  millions  a 
sovereignty  that  the  millions  generally  loathe.  Dili¬ 
gently,  then,  they  must  support  the  fiction  of  the  white 
man’s  superiority,  support  it  day  and  night  without 
ceasing  and  be  not  too  finical  about  means  or  manner. 
Doubtless,  to  many  the  task  soon  becomes  congenial, 
so  easily  is  race  hatred  bred  in  places  out  of  the  obser¬ 
vation  of  Europe,  and  so  strong  is  the  addiction  to  it  in 
some  hearts  not  yet  well  removed  from  the  stone  age. 
Yet  there  have  often  appeared  in  these  grimy  scenes 
Europeans  that  instinctively  hated  the  business  and 
knew  well  enough  that  at  bottom  the  real  reason  for 
dominating  these  subject  peoples  was  dirty  profits 
dirtily  obtained.1  But  these  very  men,  again  and 
again,  by  the  clamors  about  them  and  by  the  panic 
nature  of  the  fears  of  what  the  aroused  brown  millions 
might  do,  have  been  swept  despite  themselves  into  acts 
at  which  their  better  natures  revolted. 

Governor-General  Terrero  was  of  this  order,  and 
even  above  its  average.  He  was  willing  at  the  instiga¬ 
tion  of  angry  friars  to  assign  a  spy  to  watch  Rizal  but 
was  determined  to  avoid  the  silly  and  stupid  crime  of 
shooting  or  garroting  or  even  exiling  a  man  whose 
offense  was  that  he  had  written  a  novel  some  persons 
did  not  like.  In  other  days  and  other  administrations 
men  had  been  shot  or  garroted  or  exiled  on  charges  as 
flimsy,  but  light  was  breaking  in  Spain;  even  in  the 
face  of  tradition  and  old  frowning  privilege,  light  was 
breaking.  The  first  rift  in  the  medieval  eclipse  was 

1  It  is  customary  to  pretend  otherwise,  but  this  is  the  real  heart  of 
modern  imperialism. 


144 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


driven  by  the  sword  of  Napoleon.  Slowly  ever  since 
it  lias  been  widening  to  echoes  of  the  world’s  advance 
elsewhere.  In  1888  the  governing  class  in  Spain  had 
become  aware  of  the  scorn  of  that  world  and  began  to 
feel  a  little  the  sting  of  it.  Not  much,  then,  nor  since, 
as  we  are  to  see  in  this  narrative,  and  might  illustrate 
by  other  citations.  Lo,  it  was  this  same  Spain,  and  so 
late  as  1909,  that  murdered  Francisco  Ferrer,  the  most 
learned  man  in  her  dominions,  for  but  teaching  her 
children  in  the  manner  of  other  nations — nations  so 
far  in  the  front  of  her  that,  looking  back,  they  could 
scarce  descry  the  dust  of  her  sluggard  footsteps! 

Terrero,  at  least,  was  not  indifferent  to  the  verdict 
of  enlightened  mankind ;  yet  the  pressure  upon  him  to 
take  some  action  against  this  atrocious  leveler  and 
dangerous  character  was  greater  than  he  could  with¬ 
stand.  It  came  from  the  power  that  made  or  broke 
governor-generals,  the  power  of  the  orders,  supreme 
in  the  Islands,  supreme  in  Spain  on  any  matter  that 
related  to  the  Islands.  By  the  beginning  of  1888  their 
demand  had  reached  a  point  where  he  must  compro¬ 
mise  with  it,  and  he  4 ‘advised”  Rizal  to  leave  the 
Philippines  at  once.  The  word  is  equivocal  and  was 
meant  so  to  be;  the  real  significance  of  “advice”  in 
this  instance  was  an  unofficial  order  of  deportation.1 

Rizal  obeyed,  but  not  until  he  had  given  to  the  world 
new  evidence  of  the  versatility  of  a  genius  to  which 
there  is  scarcely  a  companion  in  human  records.  We 
are  to  remember,  first  of  all,  he  was  a  physician  that 
had  chosen  diseases  of  the  eye  for  his  specialty, 

1  Derbyshire,  p.  xxxiv. 


■■ 


PHOTOGRAPH  OF  AN  OIL  PAINTING  OF  HIS  SISTER  BY  RIZAL — MISS 

SATURNINA  RIZAL 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


145 


wherein  he  stood  in  a  place  of  distinction  before  his 
profession.  He  was  next  an  artist  in  sculpture  and 
painting;  a  poet;  a  master  of  terse  and  nervous  prose 
in  Spanish,  in  his  native  Tagalog,  and  in  ten  other 
languages.  He  was  next  a  scientist,  distinguished  in 
original  research,  already  honored  with  the  regard  of 
leading  European  minds  in  many  branches  of  recondite 
knowledge.  This,  it  will  be  admitted,  is  a  most  un¬ 
usual  range  of  pursuits.  From  them  economics  might 
be  regarded  as  far  removed  and  negligible.  Yet  he 
now  showed  that  his  many-sided  mind  could  enlist  its 
energies  in  even  the  “dismal  science”  and  his  skill  in 
expression  could  illuminate  it. 

Taxes  in  the  Philippines  had  always  been  haphaz¬ 
ard.  They  were  levied  without  system  or  anything 
akin  to  system.  Only  one  feature  about  them  could  be 
said  to  be  uniform :  everywhere  the  wealthy  evaded 
their  just  share  of  the  taxation  burden;  everywhere 
the  poor  bore  more  than  was  right  for  them  to  bear. 
The  history  of  Spanish  rule  was  a  succession  of  prom¬ 
ises  of  reform,  usually  wrenched  by  an  insurrection 
from  the  unwilling  lips  of  a  governor-general  and 
ignored  when  the  time  of  danger  had  passed.  In  the 
year  of  grace  1888  came  such  a  reformatory  spasm 
about  taxes.  When  it  reached  Calamba  it  was  received 
with  exceptional  interest  for  the  reason  that  the 
Dominicans,  with  whom  the  householders  had  an 
ancient  feud,  owned  a  great  deal  of  property  there  and 
on  it  paid  very  little. 

This,  though  outside  of  Rizal’s  studies,  was  a  sub¬ 
ject  all  within  the  purpose  to  which  he  had  consecrated 


146 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


himself.  He  was  to  live  for  his  people ;  he  was  to  do 
whatever  came  to  his  hand  to  help  them  to  rise.  Here 
was  a  poignant  illustration  of  the  vast  and  compli¬ 
cated  evils  that  weighed  them  down.  Since  his  first 
interview  with  Terrero  he  had  been  living  at  Calamba 
in  his  mother’s  house,  practising  with  brilliant  suc¬ 
cess  his  profession  and  lending  his  influence  to  every 
project  that  seemed  to  promise  good  for  the  Filipinos. 
His  prestige  and  influence  had  become  great.  Despite 
all  the  efforts  of  the  Government,  knowledge  of  his 
book  and  of  its  meaning  was  wide-spread.  Copies  were 
continually  being  smuggled  into  the  country  and  passed 
from  hand  to  hand.  Often  at  the  approach  of  officers 
they  were  buried  in  fields  or  rubbish-heaps  and  dug 
up  again  when  the  danger  was  gone.  A  Filipino  that 
could  read  was  a  popular  man,  then,  in  his  community ; 
he  found  much  employment  reading  4 ‘Noli  Me  Tan- 
gere”  to  groups  that  cowered  in  the  brush,  maybe,  a 
sentinel  posted  to  give  warning  of  the  approach  of  the 
Civil  Guard.  The  result  of  all  this  could  be  but  one 
thing.  From  the  mass  of  the  despised  Filipinos  he 
was  emerging  as  their  natural  leader. 

He  observed  now  the  approach  of  the  taxation  issue 
and,  one  might  say,  went  forth  to  meet  it.  His  facile 
and  powerful  mind  absorbed  the  whole  business.  Tax¬ 
ation  he  studied  until  he  seemed  to  know  more  about 
it  than  any  other  man  in  the  Islands.  In  the  manner  of 
the  true  modern  investigator,  he  sought  for  facts,  not 
arguments:  what  the  poor  man  paid  upon  his  small 
holding,  what  the  rich  owner  paid  upon  his  great 
estate.  When  these  had  been  gathered,  he  reduced 
them  all  to  a  report  that  the  overburdened  taxpayers 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


147 


took  for  their  own  and  presented  to  the  Government 
impressively  signed  by  their  local  officers.1 

He  had  done  more  here,  very  likely,  than  he  himself 
knew.  The  document  thus  prepared  became  the  rally- 
ing-point  for  another  of  those  struggles  between  the 
people  and  the  Government  that  increasingly  signaled 
the  downfall  of  the  existing  System.  Slowly  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  was  closing  in  upon  the  sixteenth, 
democracy  upon  the  autocracy  that  at  the  borders  of 
civilization  still  outlived  the  date  of  its  normal  demise. 
RizaPs  work  on  taxation  showed  the  Filipinos  what 
they  could  do  by  uniting  their  efforts.  In  their  country, 
too,  the  exploiter  held  the  exploited  by  fomenting 
among  them  envyings,  jealousies,  and  caste;  a  process 
that  everywhere  attends  (and  usually  comprises)  the 
white  man’s  burden,  and  whereof  India  offers  the  chief 
surviving  example.  In  the  face  of  every  obstacle  and 
discouragement  the  Filipinos  were  now  learning  the 
lesson  of  union,  and  the  only  shadow  union  cast  for¬ 
ward  was  revolt. 

RizaPs  leadership  was  a  phrase  we  used  in  a  fore¬ 
going  paragraph.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  he  came  into 
that  eminence  without  an  effort  of  his  own,  without 
planning  or  connivance.  He  was  elated  to  find  great¬ 
ness  thus  thrust  upon  him  and  would  not  have  been 
human  otherwise;  yet  to  be  conspicuous  had  never 
been  any  real  part  of  his  scheme  of  life,  and  when  ela¬ 
tion  was  at  its  height  it  never  obscured  the  fact  that 
what  he  really  sought  was  a  result  for  the  country  and 
not  kudos  for  himself.  But  he  was  the  most  famous  of 
living  Filipinos;  knowledge  of  his  place  among  the 

1  Craig,  p.  138. 


148 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


world’s  scientists  was  now  general  among  his  coun¬ 
trymen;  those  that  had  not  been  able  to  read  “Noli 
Me  Tangere  ’  ’  nor  to  hear  it  read  were  becoming  aware 
by  common  report  of  the  nature  of  its  protest.  He 
was  the  one  man  that  had  been  able  to  make  the  bitter 
cry  of  the  Filipinos  audible  to  the  world.  He  had  best 
formulated  and  expressed  the  wrongs  under  which 
those  people  suffered.  He  alone,  with  this  fierce  deri¬ 
sion,  had  dared  to  defy  the  power  of  the  friars  and 
the  brutal  fists  of  the  Civil  Guards.  Naturally,  the 
people  turned  to  him,  and  the  unanimity  with  which 
they  sought  his  counsel  might  have  shown  the  Span¬ 
iards  again  among  what  fires  they  were  walking;  for 
the  spirit  that  gave  rise  to  the  popularity  of  Rizal 
was  even  more  significant  than  anything  he  said  in 
his  book.  Before  that  book  was  written  the  spirit  had 
been  there;  it  was  growing  while  the  friars  debated 
the  best  means  to  suppress  the  audacious  author;  it 
was  certain  to  break  out  into  open  revolt — if  not  under 
Rizal,  then  under  some  one  else. 

In  view  of  these  conditions,  Rizal  has  been  sub¬ 
jected  to  some  criticism  for  obeying  the  sugar-coated 
deportation-order  of  the  governor-general  and  taking 
himself  from  the  Islands  at  a  time  so  momentous. 
The  criticism  is  not  now  important  but,  to  keep  straight 
the  thread  of  narrative,  may  be  examined  here.  To 
say  nothing  of  the  obvious  fact  that,  as  the  power  of 
the  governor-general  was  absolute,  hesitation  to  obey 
would  be  followed  by  an  explicit  command,  other 
things  were  to  be  considered.  All  Rizal’s  instincts 
strove  against  the  idea  of  advance  by  physical  vio¬ 
lence.  He  believed  in  the  weapons  of  the  spirit,  not 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


149 


in  the  carnal  sword.  To  defy  the  governor-generaPs 
“advice”  meant  but  one  thing.  It  would  be  a  direct 
appeal  to  physical  force;  it  would  be  followed  by 
revolution  and  slaughter;  and  to  these  he  felt  he 
could  never  consent. 

Moreover,  he  was  up  to  this  time  not  in  favor  of 
immediate  separation  from  Spain.  On  this  issue  his 
views  have  been  distorted  by  controversialists  that 
have  selected  expressions  seemingly  favorable  to  one 
side  or  the  other  of  a  disputed  question.  Long  after 
events  had  wholly  changed  the  face  and  the  substance 
of  Philippine  affairs  it  was  the  custom  of  persons 
opposed  to  Philippine  independence  to  cite  Rizal  in 
support  of  their  arguments.  This  was  unfairly  done. 
Reference  to  one  undeniable  fact  should  be  enough  to 
dispose  of  the  fabricated  uncertainty  about  his  views 
on  this  question.  All  the  reforms  he  strove  for  looked 
to  independence  and  could  not  look  to  anything  else. 
It  was  not  for  academic  satisfaction  he  desired  in¬ 
crease  of  culture  among  his  people,  but  that  with 
wisdom  and  confidence  they  might  take  their  place 
among  the  nations  of  earth.  It  was  not  for  the  mere 
sake  of  teaching  that  he  desired  to  see  them  taught, 
but  that  they  might  be  taught  to  be  free. 

When  we  recognize  this  basis,  which  shows  plainly 
enough  in  his  writings,1  his  attitude  toward  Spain, 
otherwise  mysterious  or  contradictory,  is  consistent 
enough  to  suit  any  taste.  He  wished  Spain  to  grant 
reforms,  to  adopt  a  system  of  education  that  would 
meet  some,  at  least,  of  the  urgent  needs  of  the  people, 
to  unchain  the  press,  to  remake  the  grotesque  courts, 

1It  is  the  whole  philosophy  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere. ” 


150 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


to  recognize  the  people  of  the  Islands  as  human 
beings,  and  to  give  them  something  to  live  for.  The 
effect  of  these  changes,  he  well  knew,  would  be  to 
release  the  Filipino  mind,  and  when  that  should  be  set 
free  the  result  could  be  only  one  thing.  It  was  dark¬ 
ness  and  ignorance  that  enabled  Spain  to  rule;  the 
symbols  of  all  her  power  were  of  the  night.  But  he 
thought  the  reforms  that  would  allow  the  Filipino 
to  stand  upright  before  the  world  Spain  itself  must 
grant;  to  try  to  wrest  them  from  her,  gun  in  hand, 
would  be  to  miss  them  altogether.  Spain  must  grant 
them.  True,  she  would  thereby  be  lighting  her  own 
eventual  exit  from  the  Islands,  but  he  was  able  to  make 
himself  believe  (for  a  time)  that  the  Spanish  Govern¬ 
ment  could  be  persuaded,  or  led  by  events,  to  do  this 
thing.  This  was  a  lovely  dream  and  possible  only  to 
one  of  faith  larger  than  the  average  man’s  in  the  in¬ 
nate  strength  of  a  cause  just  and  reasonable.  It  was 
not  really  in  him  inconsistent  that  all  this  time  he  was 
under  no  illusion  about  the  bespattered  record  and 
reactionary  tendencies  of  the  controlling  power  in 
Spain;  what  he  thought,  apparently,  was  that  by 
bringing  home  to  that  power  a  sense  of  the  world’s 
contempt  and  urging  the  need  of  sweeping  reforms 
such  agitation  would  generate  its  own  compulsive  and 
undeniable  force.  He  is  not  the  only  man  in  history 
in  whom  the  sense  of  justice  was  so  strong  it  obscured 
its  total  want  in  others. 

But  even  so,  in  a  way,  what  confronted  him  and  the 
Philippines  at  the  moment  was  beyond  choosing.  The 
immediate  demand  must  be  for  the  reforms  that  lay  in 
Spain’s  power  to  give  or  to  withhold;  these  were  im- 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


151 


perative ;  that  a  start  may  be  made  upon  the  road,  let 
us  unite  and  demand  these  first  reforms. 

There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  these  were 
the  ideas  that  controlled  him  when  Terrero  ‘ 4  advised  ” 
him  to  depart,  and  none  that  in  the  next  few  years  his 
views  on  these  subjects  contracted  as  he  looked  more 
searchingly  upon  the  troglodyte  methods  of  the  Span¬ 
ish  rulers.  He  was  the  less  reluctant  to  leave  the  Phil¬ 
ippines  because  his  private  life,  apart  from  his  career 
of  service,  had  been  darkened  by  the  catastrophe  of 
his  love-aff air ;  he  had  come  home  to  find  Leonora  mar¬ 
ried.  Two  other  impulses  concurred  to  urge  him  away. 
The  success  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  (despite  so  many 
and  powerful  measures  taken  to  suppress  the  book) 
and  the  manifest  effect  of  it  upon  the  Filipino  mind 
must  have  strongly  reminded  him  of  that  sequel  he  had 
vaguely  intended  when  he  completed  the  last  chapters 
of  his  novel.  He  could  not  hope  to  accomplish  any 
such  work  at  home;  he  could  not  hope,  even  if  he 
should  write  it  there,  to  find  a  publisher  for  it  in  the 
Islands  nor  to  smuggle  out  the  manuscript.  To  write 
it  he  must  be  abroad.  Next,  he  had  seen  much  of 
Europe  but  nothing  of  that  American  Republic  about 
which  Jagor’s  prophecy  had  so  inflamed  his  youthful 
mind.  Here,  by  Jagor’s  logic,  was  the  power  destined 
some  day  to  transform  all  the  regions  bordering  upon 
the  Pacific,  and  he  had  never  seen  it.  This  was  also 
the  country  whose  history  and  spirit  he  had  glimpsed 
in  the  “Lives  of  the  Presidents”  that  he  so  eagerly 
read  and  returned  to.  In  that  country  farmers’  boys, 
canal-boat  drivers,  tailors’  apprentices,  rail-splitters, 
journeyman  printers,  any  son  of  the  plain  people  could 


152 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


rise  to  any  place,  even  the  highest.  It  was  a  country 
that  conspicuously  had  won  to  freedom  and  indepen¬ 
dence  out  of  a  gross  tyranny.  Therefore,  it  had  a 
peculiar  claim  to  his  attention.  As  he  must  go  some¬ 
where,  he  planned  to  return  to  Europe  by  way  of  the 
United  States. 

He  was  relieved  of  all  anxiety  about  his  mother. 
The  eyesight  of  her  youth  had  been  restored  to  her. 

This  time  there  was  no  difficulty  about  his  passport 
and  no  need  that  he  should,  like  an  escaping  criminal, 
steal  at  night  from  the  city.  The  responsible  powers 
were  but  too  glad  to  have  him  go.  He  sailed  from 
Manila  on  February  28,  1888,  going  first  to  Hong- 
Kong.  There  and  in  the  neighboring  city  of  Macao  he 
visited  and  talked  with  many  refugees  and  exiles  of 
1872,  annus  hystericus  in  Philippine  history.  By  de¬ 
portation  or  flight  that  year  the  islands  had  lost  hun¬ 
dreds  of  their  best  minds  and  ablest  servitors.  That 
many  of  these  were  afterward  proved  to  have  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  uprising  for  which  they  were 
banished  or  hunted  is  superfluous  evidence  of  the  mad 
psychology  of  the  time.  In  most  of  these  cases  there 
were  no  trials,  no  investigations,  no  queries.  Some 
one  frenzied  with  fear  imagined  the  man  across  the 
street  to  be  behaving  in  a  way  that  indicated  conspir¬ 
acy;  to  the  Ladrones  with  him!  Some  one  else  saw 
two  men  in  the  street  salute  each  other  with  suspicious 
gravity;  the  next  morning  both  were  on  their  way  to 
the  Carolines.1  The  Herrara  family  had  maintained 
a  back  yard  quarrel  with  the  Venturas.  Mr.  Ventura 

1  Ladrones  and  Carolines  were  groups  of  islands  in  the  South  Seas  that 
Spain  owned  and  misgoverned. 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


153 


was  denounced  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  loneli¬ 
ness  at  Macao.  It  was  the  Lion’s  Mouth  and  the 
cachets  of  the  Bastile,  revived  for  the  astonished 
instruction  of  the  age  of  steam.  Cases  are  in  the  rec¬ 
ords  of  men  that  were  seen  carrying  home  bundles — 
fish,  maybe,  or  steak.  ‘ 1  Bombs!”  cried  the  officers, 
under  the  sway  of  emotion,  and  that  night  haled  the  un¬ 
fortunate  householder  from  his  bed.  Sometimes  the 
intended  victims  of  these  maniacal  manifestations 
received  friendly  hints  before  the  blow  fell  and  had 
time  to  flee  to  the  woods,  whence  they  made  their  way 
out  of  the  country,  to  live,  very  likely,  in  the  utmost 
poverty. 

Such  was  the  lot,  in  fact,  of  most  of  the  men  de¬ 
ported.  One  of  them,  a  learned  lawyer,  the  ornament 
of  the  Philippine  bar,  as  innocent  of  the  conspiracy  as 
the  premier  of  Spain  himself,  was  twenty  years  later 
picking  up  the  crumbs  of  a  living  by  trying  to  practise 
a  little  Spanish  law  in  London.1 

It  is  to  be  assumed  that  conversation  with  such  men 
did  nothing  to  soften  Rizal’s  spirit  or  to  cool  his  ardor 
of  service.  They  were  the  living  monuments  to  the 
hopeless  incapacity  of  the  existing  System  to  govern 
or  to  advance.  From  his  days  and  nights  in  their  com¬ 
pany  he  passed  to  Japan,  where  in  the  space  of  one' 
month  he  achieved  the  almost  incredible  feat  of  mas¬ 
tering  the  Japanese  language.  But  for  the  testimony 
of  the  facts  the  hardiest  biographer  would  scarce  dare 
the  assertion.  Rizal  came  to  Japan  with  scarce  a  word 
of  Japanese;  he  remained  but  one  month;  before  he 
departed  he  was  speaking  it  so  well  that  the  natives 

1  Craig,  p.  140. 


154 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


thought  he  was  a  countryman  of  theirs,  and  he  was 
acting  as  their  interpreter.  Thereafter  he  could  speak 
and  write  Japanese  as  readily  as  English  or  German. 

At  Hong-Kong  he  had  been  somewhat  surprised  to 
find  himself  invited  to  the  Spanish  consulate  and  urged 
to  abide  there.1  At  Tokio  this  experience  was  re¬ 
peated,  the  Spanish  legation  offering  him  its  hospi¬ 
tality  and  even  suggesting  employment  as  a  translator. 
The  purposes  of  these  advances  were  clear  enough. 
He  was  one  that  the  Government  willed,  after  its  cus¬ 
tom,  to  have  always  under  surveillance;  to  have  him 
beneath  a  legation  roof  was  easier  and  cheaper  than 
to  hire  secret  service  men. 

From  Yokohama  he  sailed  for  San  Francisco,  aston¬ 
ishing  his  fellow-travelers  by  conversing  with  all  the 
aliens  in  their  own  tongues,  whatever  these  might  be. 
Among  them  was  a  Japanese  that  knew  not  a  word  of 
English.  Rizal  attached  himself  to  this  unfortunate 
and  acted  as  his  interpreter  all  the  way  to  London. 

When  he  landed  at  San  Francisco,  April  28,  1888, 
his  first  experiences  under  the  American  flag  were 
hardly  calculated  to  swell  his  enthusiasm  for  the  repub¬ 
lic.  It  happened  to  be  a  time  when  a  terror  of  epidem¬ 
ics  was  afoot,  and  he  might  have  reminded  himself 
from  what  he  saw  that  sporadic  hysteria  is  not  the 
exclusive  possession  of  the  Spaniards  nor  of  anybody 
else.  What  a  whisper  of  insurrection  meant  to  a  Span¬ 
ish  government  officer  in  Manila,  a  vision  of  a  cholera- 
germ  might  signify  to  a  health-officer  in  America.  The 
health  authorities  of  San  Francisco  were  then  busily 

1  Ketana,  p.  150.  He  sees  nothing  remarkable  in  these  suddenly  cordial 
relations. 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


155 


quarantining  everything  that  came  into  the  port.  To 
them  the  fact  that  Rizal ’s  steamer  carried  a  clean 
bill  of  health  meant  nothing,  nor  that  she  had  been 
properly  inspected  and  cleared  at  Yokohama,  nor  that 
no  disease  had  developed  among  her  people  on  the 
way  over.  Who  knew  what  horrent  microbes  might  be 
lurking  in  her  woodwork  or  snugging  in  the  coal-hole  ? 
Therefore,  authority  decreed  to  hold  her  day  after  day 
in  quarantine  while  the  passengers  chafed  and  fidgeted 
and  the  British  among  them  complained  to  their  consul 
and  threatened  an  international  scandal.1 

Rizal  seems  to  have  endured  the  affliction  with  his 
customary  philosophy.  From  the  deck  he  made 
sketches  of  the  new  country  that  thus  slammed  its 
doors  in  his  face — among  them  a  reproduction  of  the 
revenue  flag,  with  its  eagle  and  perpendicular  bars, 
which  he  thought  was  a  novel  and  taking  design.  He 
did  not  fail  to  observe,  however,  that  while  the  human 
beings  on  the  steamer  were  rigidly  quarantined  the 
cargo  was  unloaded,  and  he  wondered  how  infection 
could  be  carried  by  the  passengers  and  not  by  the 
freight.  When  he  was  released,  he  went  to  the  old 
Palace  Hotel  in  San  Francisco  and  spent  several  days 
observing  the  strange  life  of  the  city.  Thence,  by 
train  over  the  mountains,  noting  with  astonishment 
how  great  an  area  of  the  country  through  which  he 
passed  was  uninhabited,  and  apparently  being  rather 
entertained  than  enraged  by  the  horrors  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  sleeping-car.  Two  things  of  much  greater  moment 

1  Rizal ’s  diary:  see  Appendix  E.  Retana  (p.  152)  prints  a  letter  from 
Rizal  to  his  friend  Mariano  Ponce  in  which  he  allows  himself  a  little 
sarcasm  about  some  of  these  experiences. 


156 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


impressed  him  sadly.  One  was  the  race  prejudice 
against  the  Chinese  in  San  Francisco  (then  at  its 
height),  and  the  other  the  race  prejudice  against  the 
Negro,  manifested  in  some  other  parts  of  the  country. 

Afterward  he  wrote  this  summary  of  his  swallow 
flight  across  the  continent: 

I  visited  the  larger  cities  of  America.  They  have  splendid 
buildings  and  magnificent  ideals.  America  is  a  home-land  for 
the  poor  that  are  willing  to  work.  I  traveled  across  America, 
and  saw  the  majestic  cascade  of  Niagara.  I  was  in  New  York, 
the  great  city,  but  there  everything  is  new.  I  went  to  see  some 
relics  of  Washington,  that  great  man  who,  I  fear,  has  not  his 
equal  in  this  century. 

From  Albany  he  had  gone  forward  by  the  Hudson 
River,  and  was  greatly  impressed  with  its  magnificent 
scenery,  but  thought  that,  in  the  way  of  commerce 
alone,  the  Pasig  was  busier.  From  New  York  he  sailed 
on  the  steamer  City  of  Rome,  then  esteemed  a  maritime 
masterpiece,  and  reached  London,  where  he  found 
lodgings  with  the  organist  of  St.  PauPs  Cathedral 
and  settled  himself  for  a  season  of  work  and  study. 

Part  of  this  work  became  afterward  an  invaluable 
legacy  to  his  countrymen  and  literature.  In  his  youth 
he  had  heard  of  a  wonderful  book,  of  which  only  two 
or  three  copies  existed  in  all  the  world,  a  book  written 
in  1607  1  about  the  Philippine  Islands  and  their  people 
as  they  were  then.  A  blunt,  honest  old  Spaniard,  An¬ 
tonio  de  Morga,  had  written  it,  apparently  with  no 
purpose  except  to  tell  the  truth,  an  impulse  that  in 

1  Published  in  Mexico  in  1609.  De  Morga  had  been  in  the  Philippines 
from  1595  to  1605.  Retana,  pp.  172-173 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


157 


itself  for  his  times  was  enough  to  confer  distinction. 
Other  Spanish  writers  of  that  day  had  written  to  cre¬ 
ate  desired  impressions,  to  justify  theories  or  to  excuse 
the  Spanish  aggression,  whereby  the  lies  had  dripped 
like  oil  from  their  pens.  De  Morga  had  as  good  a 
chance  as  anybody  else  to  know  the  Islands;  he  had 
accompanied  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  Spanish  expe¬ 
ditions  and  for  seven  years  had  been  a  part  of  its 
exploits.  One  of  the  few  copies  of  his  book,  “Sucesos 
de  las  Islas  Pilipinas,”  was  in  the  British  Museum. 
Rizal  formed  the  ambitious  design  to  rescue  it  from 
oblivion  and  republish  it,  annotated  and  clarified. 

With  some  difficulty  he  ran  the  barrage  so  strangely 
erected  around  this  institution  and  found  the  precious 
volume  to  be  all  that  had  been  said  in  praise  of  it. 
He  Morga ’s  observations,  evidently  unbiased,  estab¬ 
lished  what  Rizal  had  long  surmised  and  then  asserted, 
that  the  Filipinos  had  been  historically  wronged.  The 
sea-coast  folk,  at  least,  the  bulk  of  the  nation,  had  not 
been  more  truly  savages  when  Magellan  came  than  the 
Spaniards  themselves.  From  de  Morgans  accounts 
it  was  easy  to  show  that  the  Filipino’s  spirit,  activi¬ 
ties,  and  general  welfare  had  been  in  no  way  bettered 
by  Spanish  rule.  Arts,  industries,  products  in  the 
Islands,  and  even  energy,  seemed  to  have  been  more 
observable  among  the  people  in  de  Morga ’s  day  than 
at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

This  was  a  matter  of  grave  importance  to  the 
Islanders  and  so  remained  long  after  Rizal ’s  labors 
had  ceased.  The  Spanish  excused  to  the  world  their 
presence  and  their  cruelties  alike  on  the  one  ground 
that  the  Indio  was  a  savage.  Suppose  him  without 


158 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


European  restraint  and  European  inspiration,  they 
said;  he  would  revert  to  his  caves,  his  raw  meat,  and 
his  bows  and  arrows.  To  learn  that  he  was  heir  to 
these  centuries  of  dignity  and  worth  was  not  only  dis¬ 
concerting  but  raised  a  question  to  which  there  was 
no  answer.  If  he  was  as  civilized  as  the  Spaniard, 
why  had  he  not  the  Spaniard’s  right  to  be  free! 

De  Morga  described  at  length  the  arts  and  industries 
that  flourished  in  the  Philippines  long  before  a  Span¬ 
ish  flag  had  fluttered  above  their  waters ;  the  excellence 
in  weaving,  in  metalwork,  agriculture,  government, 
domestic  arts,  commerce,  navigation;  how  the  natives 
lived  and  worked,  what  good  ships  they  built,  what 
busy  marts  they  had  erected.1  On  this  Rizal’s  obser¬ 
vations  are  shrewd  and  witty,  but  he  sometimes 
allowed  his  joy  over  the  vindication  of  his  people  and 
of  his  own  theories  about  them  to  sweep  him  out  of 
that  coolly  scientific  attitude  he  usually  maintained 
about  such  things.  For  this  he  may  be  forgiven.  He 
was  sensitive,  he  was  proud;  he  had  suffered  for  the 
unjust  disparagement  of  his  race ;  he  was  dealing  with 
evidence  that  the  Filipino  stock  was  as  good  as  any 
other,  as  much  entitled  to  development  in  its  own  way. 

While  he  was  making  these  studies  he  found  relax¬ 
ation  in  athletics.  He  screwed  together  some  of  his 
regularly  apportioned  time  to  get  into  the  fields  and 

1  This  is  confirmed  by  the  recent  investigations  of  Craig  and  Benitez, 
“Philippine  Progress  Prior  to  1898.”  No  one  denied  or  denies  the 
existence  of  uncivilized  or  scantly  civilized  tribes  in  the  interior.  De 
Morga  was  speaking  about  the  people  near  the  coast. 

Skepticism  about  early  Filipino  civilization  is  a  necessary  waiter  at 
the  heels  of  whomsoever  wishes  to  defend  imperialism. 

De  Morga ’s  work,  newly  translated,  is  printed  in  Blair  and  Robertson, 
Vol.  XV. 


AGAIN  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


159 


play.  He  learned  to  box  and  to  play  cricket;  he  had 
long  been  an  expert  fencer.1  At  cricket  he  was  so  good 
that  it  seems  a  pity  baseball  came  so  late  into  his 
country;  it  is  a  game  that  would  have  exactly  suited 
his  tastes  and  inclinings.  In  the  combination  of  alert 
mentality  and  swift  physical  action  that  baseball  re¬ 
quires  must  be  something  peculiarly  attractive  to  the 
Filipino,  for  do  but  observe  the  astonishing  records 
he  has  made  at  it,  exciting  the  admiration  of  the  most 
experienced  judges.  Rizal  had  never  forgotten  the 
training  in  physical  exercise  he  had  received  from 
his  uncle;  he  still  loved  to  fence,  to  ride,  to  run,  to 
take  long,  swift  walks.  His  faith  was  all  in  the  mental 
health  that  is  fortified  by  physical  well-being;  when 
all  his  mental  enginery  had  been  working  full  tilt  he 
found  ease  in  the  open  air,  in  quick  motion  and  the 
trees  and  flowers.  His  body  was  as  supple  as  a 
wrestler’s,  and  in  support  of  his  theories  of  reciprocal 
mental  and  physical  soundness  it  is  to  be  remarked 
that  in  all  his  life  he  seems  never  to  have  been  seri¬ 
ously  ill. 

In  London  he  found  congenial  company  in  the  house¬ 
hold  of  Dr.  Antonio  Regidor,  a  Filipino  that  had  suf¬ 
fered  exile  in  the  Cavite  frenzy  of  1872.  Dr.  Regidor 
had  three  charming  daughters.  RizaPs  ideas  of  life 
and  conduct  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  when, 
after  a  time,  he  discovered  that  one  of  these  young 
ladies  was  forming  an  attachment  for  him,  instead  of 
being  elated  he  was  much  troubled  in  his  mind  and 
concluded  that  in  such  circumstances  the  best  thing  he 
could  do  was  to  take  himself  out  of  the  young  lady’s 

1  Craig,  p.  146. 


160 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


sight.  For  once  the  paths  of  duty  and  expediency  fell 
together.  By  this  time  he  had  completed  his  work  at 
the  museum  and  he  now  departed  for  Paris. 

There,  Juan  Luna,1  the  Filipino  painter,  with  whom 
Rizal  had  formed  a  close  friendship  while  both  were 
in  Madrid,  1882  to  1885,  had  now  made  his  home  and 
Rizal  seems  to  have  rejoiced  to  renew  his  associations 
with  his  talented  countryman.  It  is  certain  that  the 
stupidity  of  race  prejudice,  which  has  so  many  other 
and  blacker  wrongs  to  answer  for,  has  deprived  this 
man  of  a  certain  part  of  his  just  reward.  Yet  he  was 
a  great  painter,  the  winner  of  prizes  in  many  European 
competitions,  and  an  artist  that  Paris  delighted  to 
honor.2  A  contemporary  and  fellow  Filipino,  Hidalgo, 
was  hardly  less  successful ;  so  seldom  are  their  achieve¬ 
ments  counted  in  any  summary  of  the  Malay  that  most 
unjustly  America  is  still  unaware  of  them.  Rizal 
usually  spent  his  Sundays  in  Luna’s  studio,  sometimes 
fencing,  sometimes  talking  art,  of  which  he  was  still, 
for  all  his  troubles,  distractions,  and  complex  activi¬ 
ties,  the  steadfast  worshiper. 

1  Retana,  p.  193. 

2  The  office  of  the  governor-general  at  Malacanan,  Manila,  has  one 
painting  by  Luna  that,  if  he  had  never  painted  anything  else,  would  be 
enough  to  insure  his  fame. 

Juan  Luna  was  also  a  sturdy  patriot.  In  1897  he  was  arrested  in 
Manila  for  conspiring  in  behalf  of  his  country’s  independence  and  by  a 
narrow  chance  missed  the  firing-squad.  After  six  months  close  impris¬ 
onment  he  was  released  and  escaped  from  the  country  but  returned  and 
was  present  when  the  Spanish  domination  came  to  an  end.  (Foreman, 
p.  394.)  His  career  was  picturesque.  He  had  been  born  in  as  poor  a 
home  as  any  in  the  Philippines  and  had  begun  life  as  a  sailor.  The  city 
of  Barcelona  purchased  and  still  has  one  of  his  paintings  that  had  been 
awarded  a  prize  at  the  Madrid  Salon. 


1  If’ 


WOOD  CARVING  BY  RIZAL 
His  famous  statue  of  the  Holy  Cross 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  GRAPES  OF  WRATH 

THOUGH  all  this  time  out  of  the  sight  of  his  ene¬ 
mies  in  Manila,  he  seems  never  to  have  been  out 
of  their  minds ;  authoritative  evidence  that  in  his  novel 
he  had  told  the  truth  about  them.  Theirs  was  a 
hatred  not  unmixed  with  reasonable  fears  of  his  popu¬ 
larity  and  of  his  powerful  pen.  They  waited  until 
he  was  at  a  safe  distance  before  they  moved  against 
him,  and  then  in  a  way  that  verified  the  ancient  adage 
concerning  the  union  of  the  essential  qualities  of  bully 
and  coward.  They  struck  at  him  through  his  family, 
left  now  without  defense. 

His  sister  Lucia  was  married  to  Mariano  Herbosa, 
who  in  Manila  had  been  RizaPs  dear  friend.  Herbosa 
died  soon  after  RizaPs  departure,  and  his  death  gave 
to  the  friars  an  opportunity  for  a  revenge  as  uncouth 
and  revolting  as  far-fetched.  On  the  ground  that 
Herbosa  had  not  received  final  absolution  before  his 
death,  they  ordered  his  body  to  be  dug  up  and  cast  out 
of  the  church  where  it  had  been  buried.1  To  the  family 
of  a  sincere  Catholic  this  involved  an  almost  insup¬ 
portable  grief,  an  almost  maddening  wrong.  That 
they  might  give  to  their  action  the  semblance  of  legal¬ 
ity  the  friars  had  telegraphed  the  archbishop  at  Manila 

1  Mr.  Derbyshire  says  it  was  thrown  to  the  dogs,  but  this  must  be  a 
figure  of  speeeh.  It  seems  to  have  been  exposed  until  buried  in  unconse¬ 
crated  ground. 


161 


162 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


that  RizaPs  brother-in-law  had  died  after  neglecting 
his  church  duties  and  abandoning  the  confessional.1 
Then  they  hypocritically  asked  what  they  should  do  in 
the  case,  knowing  full  well  that  on  such  a  presentation 
only  one  response  was  possible.  Protests  and  appeals 
by  the  family  won  no  mitigation  of  the  harsh  sentence ; 
they  are  said  to  have  been  stifled  or  diverted  on  the 
way,  so  that  the  archbishop  never  saw  them;  and  the 
wife  and  children  must  bear  the  taunts  their  impotence 
invited  as  well  as  the  indignity  to  the  memory  of  hus¬ 
band  and  father.  It  appears  that  the  charges  against 
Herbosa  were  mere  inventions;  he  had  with  fidelity 
performed  all  his  religious  duties. 

No  one  connected  even  remotely  or  nominally  with 
the  bold  delineator  of  friar  government  was  safe; 
through  the  persecution  of  his  relatives  he  himself 
could  be  made  to  suffer.  His  brother  Paciano  was  now 
banished  to  Mindoro  on  some  blown-up  charge  of 
thinking  sedition.  The  pretext  was  nothing;  anything 
would  serve,  from  barratry  to  simony.  Another 
brother-in-law  was  still  available,  Manuel  Hidalgo  by 
name.  Him  the  authorities  caught  on  a  charge  of  sac¬ 
rilege.  A  child  of  his  had  died  of  cholera,  and  he  had 
buried  it  without  the  ceremonies  of  the  church.  The 
civil  law  prescribed  in  cholera  cases  immediate  burial, 
and  the  health-officers  demanded  it.  A  poor  man  in 
such  an  emergency  might  well  have  been  distracted 
between  conflicting  decrees  of  church  and  state.  It 
seems  that  in  other  such  cases  when  the  head  of  the 
family  obeyed  the  civil  precepts  he  heard  nothing  of 
sacrilege.  But  they  were  not  brothers-in-law  of  Rizal. 

1  Craig,  p.  154;  Retana,  p.  195. 


THE  GRAPES  OF  WRATH 


163 


Pounce,  came  the  church  upon  the  wretched  offender. 
The  next  thing  he  knew  he  was  deported.1 

Next  two  of  RizaPs  sisters  fell  into  the  same  net. 
Sedition  and  sacrilege  were  handy  offenses.  They 
could  be  preferred  against  anybody  for  anything. 

His  father  was  the  next  victim.  In  his  case  the  plain 
purpose  was  ruin,  to  be  achieved  by  means  suggested 
to  ill  minds  through  an  out-cropping  of  one  man’s 
childish  malice.  Mr.  Mercado  raised  prize  turkeys. 
The  Attendant,  or  manager,  of  the  Dominican  estate, 
which  claimed  ownership  in  all  the  land  in  the  region 
of  the  Mercado  homestead,  had  a  nice  taste  in  these 
birds  when  skilfully  cooked,  and  it  was  his  pleasing 
habit  to  demand  from  time  to  time  gifts  of  the  choicest 
of  the  Mercado  turkeys  to  adorn  his  own  table.  The 
time  came  when  it  was  no  longer  possible  thus  to  pro¬ 
pitiate  the  petty  tyrant;  disease  had  carried  off  the 
firstlings  of  the  flock,  and  what  were  left  were  abso¬ 
lutely  needed  to  replenish  the  breed. 

From  homely  incidents  like  these  we  see  the  Philip¬ 
pines  as  they  were  and  illuminate  again  the  unfor¬ 
gettable  pages  of  RizaPs  stories.  The  intendant  made 
no  secret  of  his  purpose  to  revenge  himself ;  they  had 
at  least  the  virtue  of  candor,  these  little  satraps.  He 
conceived  that  his  immortal  dignity  had  suffered  be¬ 
cause  he  had  been  refused  turkeys  when  there  were  no 
turkeys,  and  nothing  would  ease  the  sting  of  that  burn¬ 
ing  wrong  but  retribution.  When  the  next  rent-day 
came,  Mr.  Mercado  found  that  his  rent  had  been 
doubled.  He  paid  the  increase  and  made  no  complaint. 
The  next  rent-day  he  found  that  again  the  rate  had 

1  Craig,  p.  170. 


164 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


been  doubled.  This  likewise  he  paid  without  protest. 
When  the  next  rent-day  came  and  he  found  the  rate 
was  again  increased  he  made  the  fatal  blunder  of 
appealing  to  the  courts.1 

Aggrieved  members  of  the  governing  class  must 
have  joyed  to  learn  of  so  excellent  an  opportunity  to 
salve  their  hurts,  also,  in  this  medicament  of  revenge. 
Here  was  the  father  of  the  hated  Jose  Rizal  delivered 
into  their  hands.  They  took  the  case  from  the  justice 
of  the  peace  at  Calamba,  in  whose  jurisdiction  it 
rightfully  belonged,  and  sent  it  before  a  judge  whose 
decision  they  must  have  felt  sure  they  could  control. 
There  had  now  become  involved  in  the  case  a  question 
of  broader  moment.  Mr.  Mercado’s  sturdy  resistance 
had  heartened  the  other  tenants  to  revive  the  ancient 
and  unsettled  issue  of  the  title  to  the  lands.  For  many 
years  careful  men  had  held  that  the  Dominicans,  who 
assumed  to  own  all  this  region  and  to  collect  all  rents 
from  it,  had  no  right  to  any  of  it.  The  select  judge 
before  whom  came  these  questions  lost  no  time  in 
deciding  them  against  Mercado  and  the  other  tenants. 
Mercado  appealed,  and  thereby  precipitated  one  of 
the  strangest  incidents  of  the  story. 

Of  a  sudden  appeared  at  Calamba  a  battery  of  artil¬ 
lery  and  a  company  of  soldiers,  who  ostentatiously 
took  possession  of  the  town  as  if  it  had  been  in  a  state 
of  armed  revolt.  At  this  the  inhabitants  blinked  and 
gasped,  for  nowhere  on  earth  lay  a  more  peaceable 
community.  They  were  not  left  long  in  doubt  as  to 
what  was  toward.  The  commandant  of  the  troops 

1  Rizal ’s  own  account,  ‘  ‘  The  Turkey  That  Caused  the  Calamba  Land 
Trouble.  ’  ’ 


THE  GRAPES  OF  WRATH 


165 


issued  a  curt  order  to  Mercado  and  the  other  tenants 
involved  in  the  litigation  to  remove  within  twenty -four 
hours  all  their  buildings  from  the  land  they  had  occu¬ 
pied.  An  appeal  was  pending,  a  fact  that  in  all  civil¬ 
ized  countries  would  have  been  sufficient  to  stay 
proceedings  until  the  appeal  could  be  decided.  It  was 
of  no  such  validity  here.  To  comply  with  the  savage 
order  was  physically  impossible ;  there  were  not  hands 
enough  in  Calamba  nor  in  all  the  country  around.  At 
the  end  of  the  next  day  the  agents  of  the  authorities 
set  fire  to  all  the  houses,  and  among  them  perished 
from  human  sight  and  treasuring  the  house  where  Jose 
Rizal  was  born.1 

Across  this  repulsive  story  glowers  a  face  perma¬ 
nently  evil  in  history.  The  governor-general  that  con¬ 
nived  at  these  barbarities  where  he  did  not  order  them 
was  Emiliano  Weyler,  immortal  in  the  records  of  Cuba 
as  “The  Butcher,”  accused  of  deeds  there  so  horrible 
they  can  never  be  put  into  print,  accused  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines  of  huge  peculations  as  well  as  stupid  cruelties, 
a  man  that  seemed  to  delight  in  cruelty  as  other  men 
delight  in  kindness.  It  was  he  that  thought,  “in  the 
gloomy  recesses  of  a  mind  capacious  of  such  things/  ’ 
of  the  expedient  of  overawing  Calamba  and  the  courts 
with  artillery  and  martial  law  upon  the  heads  of  the 
litigants;  it  was  he  that  had  made  the  most  show  of 
a  violent  hatred  of  Rizal  and  furnished  the  proof  that 
the  persecution  of  Francisco  Mercado  was  revenge 
upon  Francisco  Mercado’s  son.  When  Weyler  trans¬ 
ferred  his  rule  of  blood  and  iron  to  Cuba,  he  left  in 
the  official  archives  evidence  of  the  real  nature  of  the 

1  Craig,  p.  164. 


166 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


proceedings.  He  can  have  had  no  suspicion  that  he 
was  preparing  evidence  of  his  own  iniquity  to  be  given 
to  the  world  through  the  nation  he  most  hated.  His 
papers  were  still  in  the  archives  August  13,  1898,  when 
Manila  surrendered  to  Dewey  and  Merritt.  Among 
them  was  a  copy  of  a  letter  he  had  sent  at  this  time 
to  certain  of  the  friar  landlords,  expressing  his  full 
sympathy  with  them  and  (with  a  characteristic  touch) 
the  pleasure  he  had  in  serving  them  against  the 
tenantry.1 

In  the  spot  from  which  it  had  been  thus  evicted  the 
Mercado  family  had  lived  for  many  years.  There 
could  have  come  upon  these  kinsfolk  of  Rizal  no  sterner 
test  of  their  fortitude.  Before  it  they  went  their  way 
undaunted.  At  Los  Banos  was  a  small  house  to  which 
Mr.  Mercado  had  title.  There  he  led  his  family  to  a 
refuge  and  continued  his  fight  against  the  friars. 

Rizal  was  in  London  when  the  news  reached  him  of 
the  petty  vengeance  wreaked  upon  the  body  of  his 
brother-in-law.  There  had  been  launched  some  months 
before  by  the  Filipino  colony  in  Madrid  a  semimonthly 
magazine  called  “La  Solidaridad, ’ ’  the  object  of  which 
was  to  arouse  and  unify  the  Filipinos  and  wrest  re¬ 
forms  from  the  Spanish  Government.  With  impunity 
it  could  be  published  in  Madrid  but  could  not  have  lived 
a  day  in  Manila,  a  fact  sufficiently  indicating’ the  power 
and  value  of  publicity.  Spain,  with  the  eyes  of 
Europe  upon  her,  did  not  dare  to  do  at  home  the  things 
she  did  daily  in  the  Philippines ;  dared  not  to  do  them 

1  Retana,  pp.  226-227,  assumes  to  defend  Weyler  on  the  ground  that  he 
was  “upholding  judicial  authority. ”  This  must  be  a  recrudescence  of 
Retana  7s  press-agent  days. 


THE  GRAPES  OF  WRATH 


167 


or  dared  not  to  avow  them.  Distance,  creating  an  im¬ 
penetrable  screen,  created  also  in  effect  a  transition 
from  the  modern  to  the  antique  world.  There  was 
much  freedom  of  the  press  in  Spain,  a  freedom,  as 
we  have  remarked,  partly  sustained  by  the  incessant 
threat  of  rebellion  in  Barcelona.  Therefore,  as  a 
singular  fact  and  almost  comically  incongruous,  “La 
Solidaridad,”  1  with  its  acrid  criticism  of  the  Spanish 
Government,  circulated  freely  in  Spain  and  was  not 
allowed  to  enter  the  Philippines.  One  of  its  editors 
was  Marcelo  H.  del  Pilar,  a  resolute  and  restless  man, 
type  of  the  intransigent,  the  indomitable  and  pro¬ 
fessional  revolutionist.  Before  long  he  and  Rizal 
quarreled,2  for  he  was  all  for  revolution  by  physical 
force  and  Rizal  was  always  asserting  its  futility.  A 
few  years  later  del  Pilar  died  on  his  way  home  to  start 
his  long  meditated  uprising.  Untimely  was  his  death 
if  any  man’s  ever  was.  He  would  have  reached  the 
Philippines  to  find  in  full  swing  a  revolution  wherein 
his  tireless  energies  and  fiery  spirit  would  have  found 
an  outlet  at  which  men  might  have  wondered. 

But  before  they  quarreled  Rizal  had  written  much 
for  del  Pilar  and  “La  Solidaridad poems,  articles, 
editorials, ,  all  directed  toward  Philippine  reforms. 
When  he  heard  of  the  indignity  put  for  his  sake  upon 
the  name  and  clay  of  Herbosa,  he  took  up  his  pen  and 
poured  out  for  his  journal  an  account  of  the  incident 
and  his  feelings  about  it  that  scalded  the  church  au- 

1<(La  Solidaridad ’ ’  was  started  by  Graciano  Lopez  Jaena  at  Barce¬ 
lona.  Del  Pilar  took  charge  of  it  in  October,  1887,  and  moved  it  to 
Madrid  to  be  nearer  the  centers  of  action.  Compare  Blair  and  Robert¬ 
son,  Vol.  LII,  p.  176. 

3R'etana,  p.  199;  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  LII,  p.  178. 


168 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


thorities  with  a  flood  of  the  short,  hot  sentences  he 
knew  so  well  how  to  write — scoriae  and  hot  lava  from 
the  volcano.  When  the  news  of  the  attack  upon  his 
father  came  he  was  living  in  Ghent,  whither  he  had 
retired  to  write  his  new  novel  “El  Filibusterismo.” 
The  effect  upon  him  of  the  persecution  of  his  family 
is  to  be  observed  in  the  work  he  was  doing  at  the 
time ;  in  one  place  he  makes  direct  reference  to  it.  He 
has  been  telling  the  story  of  Cabesang  Tales,  a  peace¬ 
ful  Filipino  farmer,  driven  to  brigandage  by  the  extor¬ 
tions  of  the  friars  and  the  savageries  of  the  Civil 
Guards.  Then  he  says,  with  mingled  rage  and 
sarcasm : 

Calm  yourselves,  peaceful  inhabitants  of  Calamba!  None 
of  you  is  named  Tales,  none  of  you  has  committed  any  crime. 

.  .  .  You  cleared  your  fields,  on  them  you  have  spent  the 
labor  of  your  whole  lives,  your  savings,  your  vigils  and  priva¬ 
tions,  and  you  have  been  despoiled  of  them,  driven  from  your 
homes,  with  the  rest  forbidden  to  show  you  hospitality !  Not 
content  with  outraging  justice,  they  have  trampled  upon  the 
sacred  altars  of  your  country!  You  have  served  Spain  and 
the  king,  and  when  in  their  name  you  have  asked  for  justice 
you  were  banished  without  trial,  torn  from  your  wives’  arms 
and  your  children’s  caresses!  Any  one  of  you  has  suffered 
more  than  Cabesang  Tales,  and  yet  not  one  of  you  has  received 
justice.  Neither  pity  nor  humanity  has  been  shown  to  you — 
you  have  been  persecuted  even  beyond  the  tomb,  as  was 
Mariano  Herbosa.  Weep,  or  laugh,  there  in  those  lonely  isles, 
where  you  wander  vaguely,  uncertain  of  the  future  !  Spain, 
the  generous  Spain,  is  watching  over  you  and  soon  or  late, 
you  will  have  justice ! 1 

1{<The  Reign  of  Greed’ ’  (“El  Filibusterismo ”),  pp.  86-87;  Derby¬ 
shire’s  translation. 


THE  GRAPES  OF  WRATH 


169 


It  is  the  bitter  sarcasm  of  a  soul  stung  beyond  en¬ 
durance  with  the  sense  of  great  wrong. 

As  a  work  of  fictional  art,  4 ‘El  Filibusterismo,,  is 
not  equal  to  “Noli  Me  Tangere.”  It  is  likely  that 
Rizal  knew  this  and  as  likely  that  he  cared  not,  having 
now  another  purpose  than  to  tell  a  story  powerfully. 
He  is  working  with  rather  less  of  a  connected  story  and 
rather  less  of  the  clear  dramatic  prevision.  The  fates 
of  such  characters  as  he  left  unrelated  in  “Noli  Me 
Tangere”  he  follows  to  the  end,  but  on  the  way  stops 
to  picture  lives  and  conditions  not  vitally  interwoven 
with  the  climacteric.  Yet  in  one  way  this  book  is  the 
superior  in  interest,  for  it  reveals  the  change  that  had 
been  coming  over  him  in  these  two  years.  Slowly  there 
had  been  erased  in  his  creed  the  belief  in  the  good  in¬ 
tentions  of  Spain;  slowly  (and  reluctantly,  no  doubt) 
he  had  come  to  face  the  thought  that  to  appeal  to  Spain 
for  reforms  was  useless  and  the  Filipinos  must  achieve 
by  their  own  efforts  the  changes  that  would  lead  to 
their  redemption.  That  these  efforts  must  be  of  a 
peaceful  character  was  a  sheet-anchor  of  faith  to  which 
he  still  clung,  or  tried  to  cling,  and  yet  there  is  evidence 
that  he  felt  it  dragging  as  more  and  more  the  hopeless 
stupidity  of  Spain  was  revealed  to  him.1 

1  Between  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  and  “El  Filibusterismo ’ ’  is  a  vast 
difference.  We  speak  of  novels.  In  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  all  is  fresh, 
ingenuous,  impetuous;  it  is  a  novel  that  impresses  one  in  such  a  way 
that  it  is  never  forgotten ;  it  is  a  work  of  feeling.  ‘  ‘  El  Filibusterismo  ’  ’ 
is  a  work  of  deep  thought,  and  in  literature  it  must  be  remembered  that 
sentiment  is  preferred  to  thought.  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  is  a  picture  of 
the  whole  country,  rich  in  color  and  in  fantasy,  entwined  with  the 
dreams  of  a  delicate  poetry.  “El  Filibusterismo”  came  to  be  a  series 
of  philosophical-political  treatises  with  a  novelistic  trend;  every  speech 
that  appears  in  the  work  ends  in  a  patriotic  dissertation.  “Noli  Me 
Tangere”  is  the  unbosoming  of  an  enlightened  poet,  passionately  patri¬ 
otic,  artistically  revolutionary.  ‘ 1  El  Filibusterismo  ”  is  a  series  of 


170 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Evidence  of  the  change  in  his  essential  point  of  view 
may  be  found  even  in  the  dedication  of  the  new  book. 
It  is  boldly  and  uncompromisingly  to  the  men  that, 
perishing  on  Bagumbayan  Field,  in  1872,  the  gored 
victims  of  the  System,  made  their  names  immortal. 


To  the  memory  of  the  priests  [it  reads],  Don  Mariano 
Gomez  (85  years  old),  Don  Jose  Burgos  (30  years  old),  and 
Don  Jacinto  Zamora  (35  years  old),  executed  in  Bagum¬ 
bayan  Field,  February  28,  1872. 

The  church,  by  refusing  to  degrade  you,  has  placed  in  doubt 
the  crime  that  has  been  imputed  to  you ;  the  Government,  by 
surrounding  your  trials  with  mystery  and  shadows,  causes  the 
belief  that  there  was  some  error,  committed  in  fatal  moments ; 
and  all  the  Philippines,  by  worshiping  your  memory  and  call¬ 
ing  you  martyrs,  in  no  sense  recognizes  your  culpability.  In 
so  far,  therefore,  as  your  complicity  in  the  Cavite  mutiny  is 
not  clearly  proved,  as  you  may  or  may  not  have  been  patriots, 
and  as  you  may  or  may  not  have  cherished  sentiments  for 
justice  and  for  liberty,  I  have  the  right  to  dedicate  my  work 
to  you  as  victims  of  the  evil  that  I  undertake  to  combat.  And 
while  we  await  expectantly  under  Spain  some  day  to  restore 
your  good  name  and  cease  to  be  answerable  for  your  death, 
let  these  pages  serve  as  a  tardy  wreath  of  dried  leaves  over 
your  unknown  tombs,  and  let  it  be  understood  that  every  one 
that  without  clear  proof  attacks  your  memory,  stains  his  hands 
in  your  blood ! 

meditations;  it  lacks  the  admixture  of  humor,  of  semi-sweet  irony  that 
produces  such  an  effect  in  the  first  book.  It  despises  the  attacks  of  the 
religious  fanatics,  threatens  with  Voltairian  sharpness.  The  ambient  air 
of  the  tropics  is  not  felt,  charged  full  of  melancholy,  which  is  to  be 
breathed  in  “Noli  Me  Tangere. ”  Rizal  wrote  his  first  novel  having 
constantly  before  his  dreamy  fantasy  the  vision  of  his  country  as  it  was. 
In  the  second  he  wrote  thinking  of  the  redemption  of  his  race,  elevating 
the  philosopher  above  the  artist.  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  is  a  novel;  “El 
Filibusterismo  ’  ’  is  a  tract  on  the  national  anarchy.  Retana,  p.  201, 


THE  GEAPES  OF  WEATH 


171 


Here  is  a  foretaste  of  the  strange,  new,  and  passion¬ 
ate  bitterness  that  was  coming  upon  him,  not  hereto¬ 
fore  discernible  in  his  writings  nor  in  his  life,  the  nettle 
smart  of  a  growing  disillusion.  Something  there  is, 
too,  that  in  another  man  would  surely  savor  of  cyn¬ 
icism.  “You  may  or  may  not  have  been  patriots,” 
“You  may  or  may  not  have  cherished  sentiments  for 
justice  and  for  liberty,”  are  phrases  not  of  a  piece 
with  his  old-time  faith.  The  wormwood  that  flavors 
these  few  lines  is  perceptible  throughout  the  book.  In 
“Noli  Me  Tangere”  the  stem  arraignment  of  the 
friars  and  the  Spanish  officers  is  modulated  with  many 
good-natured  pictures  of  Philippine  life,  with  descrip¬ 
tions  of  the  beautiful  Philippine  country-side,  and  with 
gentle  fun-making  of  popular  follies.  In  the  sequel1 
there  are  no  relieving  touches.  It  is  hot  metal  always 
overflowing  and  burning  whatever  it  touches. 

1  It  was  published  in  Ghent.  The  title-page  bears  this  imprint : 
“Gent:  Boekdrukkerij  F.  Meyer -Van  Loo,  Vlaanderstraat,  67.  1891.” 
Rizal  was  now  able  to  defray  from  his  own  means  the  cost  of  publica¬ 
tion.  The  Madrid  newspaper,  “El  Nuevo  Regimen, ”  published  in  Oc¬ 
tober,  1891,  “extensive  extracts”  from  the  novel;  so  did  “La  Publici- 
dad”  of  Barcelona.  Not  a  line  of  it  was  printed  in  the  Philippines 
until  1900.  Four  years  later  it  was  translated  into  Tagalog. 


CHAPTER  IX 


PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 

SIXTEEN  years  after  Jagor  printed  his  almost  un¬ 
heeded  prophecy,  other  men  less  gifted  might  have 
seen  that  his  views  on  Philippine  evolution  were 
soundly  based.  The  conditions  existing  in  the  Islands 
could  not  last  much  longer.  Six  or  seven  discontented 
millions  could  not  continue  to  be  overawed  with  sol¬ 
diery  and  great  guns  and  managed  upon  a  plan  they 
hated.  No  matter  how  assiduously  they  might  be  kept 
from  all  weapons  more  deadly  than  jack-knives  and 
toothpicks,  the  existing  state  could  not  endure.  The 
mere  physical  fact  of  the  United  States,  forging  ahead 
upon  a  totally  different  principle,  would  be  an  influence 
that  soon  or  late  would  overturn  these  sagging  bul¬ 
warks  of  antiquity.  What  was  to  be  the  future  of  the 
Islands?  For  a  long  time  the  students  of  Barcelona 
tried  to  settle  this  question,  sometimes  with  debate  and 
sometimes  with  vociferation.  Thence  with  similar 
futility  it  spread  to  Madrid  and  elsewhere,  and  finally 
Rizal  took  it  up  in  a  series  of  articles  entitled  4  4  The 
Philippines  a  Century  Hence. ’  7 1 

1“Filipinas  dentro  de  Cien  Anos,  ’  ’  in  “La  Solidaridad,’  ’  1889-90. 
We  note  that  when  Rizal  discusses  the  possibility  of  future  independ¬ 
ence  for  his  people  he  sets  it  as  a  century  hence.  We  need  not  take  him 
literally,  nor  on  the  other  hand  need  we  say  his  title  was  merely  hypo¬ 
critical  and  he  was  insidiously  inciting  his  people  to  think  of  immediate 
independence;  we  shall  be  fairer  to  survey  his  writings  as  a  whole, 
probably  reaching  the  conclusion  that  the  independence  of  his  people 
was  constantly  in  his  mind,  but  sober  reason  warned  him  to  restrain 
his  and  their  youthful  impatience  on  that  subject.  Blair  and  Robertson, 
“The  Philippine  Islands,”  Vol.  LII,  pp.  202-203. 

172 


PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 


173 


What  he  thought  about  Philippine  independence  he 
here  set  down  as  plainly  as  the  law  and  the  Spanish 
Government  would  allow.  That  any  one  should  try 
to  muddle  his  views  on  this  subject  is  strange  enough 
when  he  left  thus  a  testament  reasonably  explicit  in 
its  text  and  still  more  in  its  deductions.  Although 
much  latitude  was  allowed  to  public  discussion  in  the 
Spain  of  that  day,  plotting  to  overthrow  Spanish  rule 
in  the  Philippines  was  still  sedition,  and  under  that 
term  the  police  sometimes  included  much  that  was 
extraneous — in  Spain,  as  elsewhere.  Rizal  had  no 
fear  for  himself  on  this  occasion  nor  any  other,  but 
one  can  easily  understand  that  he  wished  to  save  “La 
Solidaridad  ’ ’  from  the  ash-can.  Hence  with  admir¬ 
able  skill  he  steers  as  close  as  he  can  to  the  forbidden 
line  and  yet  escapes  it. 

Against  one  bugaboo  of  the  timid,  and  even  to  this 
day  a  favorite  device  of  the  crafty,  he  brought  to  bear 
a  destructive  logic.  It  was  urged  that  if  the  Philip¬ 
pines  were  free  they  would  instantly  be  snapped  up  by 
some  powerful  and  greedy  neighbor.  The  functions  of 
a  shield  against  these  ravenous  wild  beasts,  a  func¬ 
tion  later  supposed  to  be  performed  unselfishly  by  the 
United  States,  was  then  imagined  to  fall  to  the  lot  of 
mighty  Spain.  But  for  her  frowning  guns  and  men-of- 
war,  behold  the  Philippines  a  breakfast  any  morning 
for  Japan  or  for  Great  Britain!  In  those  days  there 
were  a  few  Filipinos  that  were  impressed  with  these 
fantasies,  or  said  to  be;  in  later  times  the  superior 
white  man  often  seemed  strangely  infected  with  them. 
To  one  inclined  to  take  them  seriously  Rizal’s  words 
might  have  been  commended  then,  or  may  be  now. 


174 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


It  appears  that  he  had  been  applying  to  his  country 
the  lessons  of  the  American  Revolution. 

If  the  Philippines  [he  says]  succeed  in  winning  their  inde¬ 
pendence  at  the  close  of  a  heroic  and  bitterly  contested  war, 
their  people  can  rest  assured  that  neither  England,  Germany, 
France,  nor  Holland  will  dare  to  pick  up  the  territory  that 
Spain  could  not  retain.  Within  a  few  years,  Africa  will 
absorb  all  the  attention  of  the  great  European  nations,  and 
none  of  them  would  neglect  the  immense  territories  and  oppor¬ 
tunities  that  will  open  in  the  Dark  Continent  for  the  sake  of  a 
handful  of  rugged  islands  at  the  other  end  of  the  world. 

As  to  England,  she  has  already  enough  of  colonies 
in  the  Orient,  and  she  is  too  wise  to  imperil  her  equi¬ 
librium  by  adding  more.  She  does  not  wish  to  run 
the  risk  of  losing  her  great  empire  in  India  for  the 
sake  of  the  comparatively  poorer  Philippine  Archi¬ 
pelago.  If  England  had  even  thought  of  taking  the 
Philippines,  she  would  never  have  retired  from  Manila 
after  she  had  captured  it  in  1763;  she  would  have 
retained  that  great  vantage-point  and  so  would  have 
spread  her  power  from  Island  to  Island  until  all  should 
be  hers.  For  her  the  game  was  not  worth  the  candle, 
and  is  not.  Singapore,  Hong-Kong,  Shanghai,  mean 
much  more  to  British  trade  and  the  empire  than  the 
Philippines  could  ever  mean,  and  she  has  no  idea  of 
risking  these  great  possessions  for  the  sake  of  a 
domain  so  dubious  and  restless  as  these  Islands.  For 
all  reasons  of  common  sense  and  commercial  ad¬ 
vantage,  England  would  look  with  favor  upon  a  state 
of  independence  that  would  open  the  Philippine  ports 
to  British  trade. 


PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 


175 


There  is,  besides,  in  England  a  feeling  always  grow¬ 
ing  that  the  country  has  gone  too  far  in  imperialism 
and  expansion,  that  the  colonies  have  already  begun 
to  weaken  the  mother-country  and  there  must  be  no 
additions  to  them. 

He  proceeds  next  to  discuss  the  probable  policies  of 
Germany,  China,  Holland,  Japan,  and  the  United 
States  toward  Philippine  independence.  None  of 
them,  in  his  view,  would  feel  any  temptation  to  inter¬ 
fere  with  it  or  to  seize  the  Islands  for  itself.  But,  in 
any  event,  he  says : 

The  Philippines  would  defend  with  the  utmost  ardor  and 
courage  the  liberty  bought  with  so  much  blood  and  sacrifice. 
A  new  man  will  spring  from  the  Philippine  bosom ;  with  new 
energy  he  will  dedicate  himself  to  progress ;  he  will  labor  with 
all  his  resources  to  strengthen  his  country  at  home  and 
abroad.  Gold  will  be  dug  from  the  Philippine  soil ;  copper, 
lead,  coal,  and  other  minerals  will  be  developed.  The  country 
will  revive  the  maritime  and  mercantile  activities  to  which  the 
Islanders  are  especially  adapted  by  nature,  instincts,  and  apti¬ 
tude.  Filipinas  will  recover  those  good  qualities  that  she  had 
centuries  ago  and  has  since  been  losing.1  Easily,  then,  we  can 

1  In  his  pretty  little  romance,  1 1  Mariang  Makiling, ’  ’  he  utters  this 
protest  against  forced  military  service  in  the  Philippines  and  indicates 
the  effect  it  had  on  the  people : 

“Meanwhile,  the  time  of  the  Spanish  army’s  conscription  came.  God 
knows  the  young  men  dreaded  it,  and  how  their  mothers  hated  it! 
Youth,  home,  family,  feelings,  and  sometimes  honor  itself,  good-bye! 
Seven  or  eight  years  of  such  soldier  life  was  brutalizing.  The  military 
despotism  relied  upon  the  lash.  Such  a  prospect  seemed  to  the  youth 
a  long  night  that  would  sap  away  the  fairest  portion  of  his  life.  In  it 
would  be  horrible  nightmares,  and  from  it  he  would  awake  old,  useless, 
corrupted,  bloody,  and  cruel.  So  dreaded  was  the  draft  that  some  have 
been  known  to  cut  off  their  two  fingers  in  order  to  exempt  themselves 
from  military  service.  Others  pulled  out  their  front  teeth  (in  the  days 
when  the  cartridge  had  to  be  bitten  off).  Still  others  fled  to  the  moun¬ 
tains  and  became  bandits.  Not  a  few  even  committed  suicide.  ’  ’ — Dr. 
Craig’s  translation. 


176 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


see  her  once  more  a  lover  of  peace,  a  home  of  justice,  and  as  of 
old  merry,  smiling,  hospitable,  audacious. 

He  recounts  then  some  of  the  existing  evils  in  his 
country  and  inquires  what,  if  one  can  imagine  another 
century  of  such  servitude,  the  Philippines  will  be  re¬ 
duced  to  in  that  time  ?  But  without  circumlocution  he 
warns  the  Government  that  the  servitude  cannot  pos¬ 
sibly  continue.  Unless  the  prudence  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  provides  remedies  that  are  real,  the  grievances 
now  accumulating  will  have  but  one  result. 

This  is  not  the  time  to  forecast  the  probable  outcome  of 
such  a  struggle  if,  most  deplorably,  it  should  come.  It  would 
depend  upon  faith,  zeal,  the  qualities  of  weapons,  and  a  mil¬ 
lion  conditions  that  men  cannot  foresee.  But  one  thing  is  cer¬ 
tain.  Suppose  all  the  advantages  to  be  upon  the  side  of  the 
Government.  Suppose  the  Government  to  win  an  ostensible 
victory.  It  would  be  a  victory  as  disastrous  as  a  defeat,  and 
this  simple  fact  the  Government  should  be  wise  enough  to  see. 

If  those  that  seek  to  guide  the  destinies  of  the  Philippines 
could  be  so  obstinate  as  tc^ihsist  upon  holding  the  country  in 
darkness  instead  of  relieving  it  with  adequate  reforms,  the 
people  would  brave  the  chances  of  revolt  and  prefer  revolt’s 
hazards,  whatever  they  might  be,  to  the  certainty  of  the 
misery  and  wrong  in  which  they  would  be  dwelling.  What 
would  they  lose  in  such  a  fight?  To  normal  men  the  choice 
between  long-drawn-out  oppression  and  a  glorious  death  is  no 
choice  at  all.  Such  men  will  always  leap  at  the  chance  of 
such  a  death  and  by  their  fervor  and  desperate  courage  go  far 
in  any  such  conflict  to  make  up  for  a  disparity  in  numbers. 

He  points  out  the  fact  that  so  far  in  Philippine  his¬ 
tory  the  revolts  have  been  sporadic  and  largely  local. 


SCULPTURE  BY  RIZAL  WHEN  A  MERE  STUDENT,  “THE  POWER  OP 

SCIENCE  OYER  DEATH  ” 


PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 


177 


Earnestly  lie  warns  the  Government  that  this  cannot 
continue.  Very  different  would  be  the  uprising  of  the 
whole  people  against  a  state  of  unendurable  misery, 
and  toward  such  an  uprising  the  policy  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  is  driving.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  he  says,  that 
factors  in  the  problem  exist  now  that  never  existed 
before.  First,  the  native  spirit  has  awakened  and  com¬ 
mon  misfortune  is  drawing  together  all  the  children 
of  the  Islands.  Second,  the  growth  of  intelligence  at 
home  and  abroad  is  fatal  to  the  existing  order.  All 
those  Filipinos  that  the  cruelty  and  stupidity  of  the 
Government  have  driven  abroad  have  learned  there 
the  rhythm  of  the  march  of  mankind  and  are  trans¬ 
mitting  it  home.  It  is  a  class  that  rapidly  increases. 
If  it  is  the  brain  of  the  country  now,  it  will  in  a  few 
years  be  the  country’s  nervous  system,  and  of  impact 
upon  those  nerves  let  the  Government  beware. 

One  of  two  things,  he  concludes,  is  certain.  Spain 
will  grant  sweeping  reforms  in  the  islands,  establish¬ 
ing  there  the  liberties  and  advantages  that  all  civilized 
people  view  as  birthrights.  Or  the  islands  will  de¬ 
clare  their  independence,  after  staining  themselves 
and  Spain  with  blood.  To  check  the  advance  of  the 
Filipinos  to  this  crisis  Spain  has  in  effect  but  three 
weapons.  First,  the  brutalizing  effect  upon  the  masses 
of  a  caste  system;  the  high  caste,  as  always,  alined 
with  the  Government.  Second,  the  supremacy  of  a 
theocratic  class  in  the  Philippine  structure,  acting  to 
overawe  the  natives,  as  in  the  Dutch  colonies  the  aris¬ 
tocratic  class  frightens  them.  Or,  third,  the  impover¬ 
ishment  of  the  country,  the  encouragement  of  tribal 
discord,  and  the  gradual  destruction  of  the  inhabitants. 


178 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Already  these  expedients  have  been  tried  enough 
to  prove  them  worthless  for  Spain’s  ultimate  use. 

One  little  fact  that  he  points  out  might  well  be  re¬ 
membered  by  all  imperialists.  Where  the  aborigines 
of  a  seized  country,  as  in  Australia,  succumb  and  dis¬ 
appear  before  the  alien  civilization,  that  makes  one 
situation  for  the  invader.  Where  the  inhabitants,  as 
in  the  Philippines,  adapt  themselves  to  the  invader’s 
civilization,  show  they  can  maintain  themselves  under 
it,  increase  in  numbers  and  in  restlessness,  bettering 
the  instruction  they  receive,  the  situation  for  the  alien 
sovereignty  is  different  and  not  wholesome. 

Still  his  hope  clung  to  peaceful  agitation  as  the 
means  of  improvement. 

Retana  says  that  Rizal  was  one  that  abhorred  violent 
revolution  in  his  mind  and  desired  it  in  his  heart. 

This  might  easily  be.  At  the  time  Rizal  was  study¬ 
ing  abroad,  many  cities  such  as  London,  Paris,  Hong- 
Kong,  Macao,  as  well  as  Madrid,  contained  small  colo¬ 
nies  of  Filipinos,  being  chiefly  the  exiles  of  1872  and 
Cavite.  Among  them  it  was  customary  to  circulate 
pamphlets  breathing  out  destruction  to  Spanish  rule 
in  the  Philippines,  and  so  on.  These  the  authors  were 
usually  wise  enough  not  to  sign,  the  chief  purpose  of 
their  labors  being,  apparently,  not  so  much  to  launch 
expeditions  for  the  overthrow  of  the  citadel  of  oppres¬ 
sion  as  to  cheer  the  hearts  of  exile  with  verbal  fire¬ 
works.  One  of  these  came  out  in  March,  1889,  in  Hong- 
Kong,  but  widely  circulated  wherever  there  were  Fili¬ 
pinos.  It  is  a  race  that,  like  the  others,  has  good  men 
and  bad,  men  that  go  erect  and  those  that  crawl.  One 


PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 


179 


of  the  latter  species,  a  creature  of  Weyler  of  the  Red 
Hands,  was  then  living  in  Hong-Kong  and  felt  called 
upon  to  answer  the  inflammatory  appeals  of  his  coun¬ 
trymen.  Perhaps  he  was  not  much  of  a  Filipino ;  per¬ 
haps  he  was,  in  the  bulk,  Spaniard.  At  least  he  said 
in  his  document  that  Spain’s  rule  in  the  Philippines 
was  the  grandest  specimen  of  colonial  wisdom  ever 
known  and  replete  with  good  things  for  the  people. 
As  to  the  friars,  he  said  that  no  possible  objection  ex¬ 
isted  to  them,  for  they  were  kind,  gentle,  fond  of  the 
people,  and  wholly  given  to  good  works.  So  he  warned 
his  countrymen  to  pay  no  attention  to  ribald  persons 
that  wrote  otherwise,  for  they  but  walked  the  straight 
road  to  destruction. 

Copies  of  this  unique  production  made  their  way  to 
Europe  and  in  the  end  to  Paris,  where  Rizal  was  then 
living.  In  October  of  that  year,  1889,  appeared  in 
Paris  a  rejoinder  to  sycophancy  that  set  on  edge  the 
teeth  of  every  Filipino  in  Europe.  It  was  unsigned, 
but  to  the  colonies  the  authorship  seemed  unmistaka¬ 
ble.  Only  one  Filipino  could  write  like  that ;  only  one 
Filipino  could  wither  with  such  disdainful  sarcasm  the 
apologist  for  the  wrongers  of  his  country. 

The  manifesto  closes  with  this  paragraph : 

When  a  people  is  torn  asunder,  when  its  dignity,  its  honor, 
and  all  its  liberties  are  trodden  underfoot ;  when  now  no  legal 
recourse  remains  against  the  tyranny  of  its  oppressors ;  when 
its  complaints,  its  supplications,  and  its  groans  are  not 
listened  to ;  when  it  is  not  even  allowed  to  cry ;  when  its  last 
hope  is  torn  from  its  heart  .  .  .  then  .  .  .  then  .  .  .  then ! 
.  .  .  there  remains  no  other  remedy  but  to  snatch  with  de- 


180 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


lirious  hand,  from  the  accursed  altars,  the  bloody  and  suicidal 
dagger  of  revolution ! 

Caesar,  we,  who  are  about  to  die,  salute  thee ! 1 

The  judgment  of  the  Filipinos  in  Europe  could 
hardly  have  been  wrong.  There  is  every  reason  to 
hold  with  them  that  the  writer  of  this  fierce  cry  of 
warning  was  Rizal. 

1  Retana,  pp.  181-182. 


CHAPTER  X 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 

THE  Indio  that  had  startled  the  Spanish  colony 
in  Manila  by  daring  to  call  the  Philippines  4 ‘my 
fatherland”  proved  his  loyalty  to  the  country  he 
adored  by  serving  it  with  a  discriminating  zeal.  He 
would  have  been  more  picturesque  if  he  had  been 
well  galvanized  by  Chauvin,  but  less  useful.  His  mind, 
though  powerful,  could  work  in  only  one  way,  which 
was  in  orderly  motions.  These  prevented  him  from 
dwelling  so  much  on  his  country’s  wrongs  that  he 
forgot  his  country’s  faults.  For  this  reason,  and  be¬ 
cause  he  could  have  no  heated  bearings  in  his  mental 
processes,  he  was  Filipinas’s  greatest  asset.  In  “Noli 
Me  Tangere”  he  showed  that  he  understood  well  the 
native  defects  (products  of  the  System)  and  would 
spare  them  no  more  than  he  spared  the  friars.  But 
it  was  for  his  countrymen’s  good  that  he  rebuked  them, 
like  a  wise  father  correcting  his  children;  and  what¬ 
ever  might  be  his  employments  he  never  forgot  two 
great  vital  visions,  Filipinas  fast  bound  in  the  prison- 
house  and  education  tardily  on  its  way  to  set  her  free. 

With  the  same  purpose  of  helping  this  good  angel 
the  sooner  to  smite  the  prison  locks,  he  now  set  him¬ 
self  an  unusual  task.  He  was  to  master  French;  not 
after  the  fashion  of  the  schools,  for  that  he  already 
had,  nor  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  acquiring  it,  but  to 

be  able  to  write  in  it  as  if  it  were  his  native  tongue. 

181 


182 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


He  knew  what  he  was  about  in  this ;  if  his  novels  should 
fail  to  arouse  the  Filipinos  he  was  determined  to  ap¬ 
peal  to  Europe  in  behalf  of  his  country,  and  he  con¬ 
ceived  that  he  could  best  do  this  in  French.  Therefore 
with  indefatigable  ardor  he  pursued  the  French  verb 
and  the  other  phenomena  of  Gallic  speech  into  their 
remotest  fastnesses.  He  took  what  might  be  called 
post-postgraduate  work  in  these  arid  excursions, 
employing  the  help  of  unusual  scholars  and  including 
colloquial  French  with  French  of  the  Academy.  When 
we  come  upon  the  fact  that  at  the  end  of  these  labors 
he  was  able  to  prepare  as  a  text-book  for  French  stu¬ 
dents  a  volume  of  French  exercises  1  we  may  perceive 
that  his  success  was  out  of  the  ordinary. 

In  Paris  when  the  exposition  of  1889  came  on  he 
was  struck  with  the  fact  that  in  that  vast  and  imposing 
procession  of  the  children  of  earth  his  own  people, 
whom  he  felt  and  knew  to  be  as  worthy  as  the  others, 
had  no  place.  Therefore  he  organized  an  international 
league  to  make  known  to  the  world  the  facts  about  the 
Filipinos  and  to  refute  the  slanders  that  Spanish 
writers  had  sown  thickly  in  European  literature.  He 
called  this  society  the  “Association  Internationale  des 
Philippinistes.”  Dr.  Blumentritt  was  president,  Dr. 
Rost  vice-president,  and  Dr.  Planchut  of  Paris  one  of 
the  directors.2  If  Rizal  was  a  nationalist,  he  was  also 
an  internationalist;  a  fact  that  must  be  already  ap¬ 
parent  in  these  annals.  No  doubt,  being  wise  about 

French  Composition  Exercises,  ”  by  Jose  Rizal,  B.A.,  Ph.M.,  L.C.M. 
(Madrid),  Postgraduate  student  in  Paris,  Leipzig,  Heidelberg,  Berlin 
and  London.  Our  copy  is  published  by  the  Philippine  Education  Com¬ 
pany,  Manila,  1912. 

2 Craig,  “ Rizal  as  a  French  Student,”  printed  as  an  Appendix  to  the 
‘  ‘  French  Composition  Exercises. 7  7 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


183 


other  things,  he  was  not  deceived  into  thinking  that 
internationalism  could  come  by  any  other  than  the 
nationalist  route.  The  first  of  the  declared  objects  of 
his  Association  Internationale  was  to  summon  an 
international  congress.  Others  were  to  study  the 
Philippines  historically  and  scientifically,  to  create  a 
Philippine  library  and  museum  of  Philippine  objects, 
to  publish  books  on  Philippine  topics,  and  to  arouse 
public  interest  in  these  objects. 

That  the  world  looked  with  some  disdain  upon  his 
people,  that  under  the  spell  of  the  Spanish  pen  it 
ignored  the  honorable  record  of  Philippine  culture  and 
the  stirring  Philippine  history,  were  thorns  that  gave 
his  mind  no  rest.  None  knew  so  well  as  he  that  this 
misprision  was  rankly  unjust.  In  the  face  of  almost 
universal  opinion  in  Europe,  he  knew  that  the  Malay 
mind,  though  different,  was  not  inferior;  he  knew 
that  what  it  wanted  was  no  more  than  the  sunlight  and 
free  air.  In  all  ways  the  general  verdict  was  askew: 
the  Filipinos  were  not  even  innately  lazy,  as  hundreds 
of  writers  had  asserted,  hundreds  still  repeated,  and 
doubtless  other  hundreds  will  continue  to  parrot  for 
years  to  come.  He  knew  that  lazy  people  could  never 
have  made  the  progress  the  Filipino  had  made  before 
the  evil  day  of  the  Spanish  flag.  The  respect  he  had 
for  the  latent  powers  of  his  countrymen  sprang  from 
research  and  not  from  prejudice.  It  was  true  enough,, 
but  not  a  truth  that  he  could  keep  refrigerated  in  scien¬ 
tific  abstractions.  It  burned  and  struggled  in  him  like 
something  fighting  to  get  free,  and  he  relieved  him¬ 
self  of  an  intolerable  protest  by  writing  (for  “La 
Solidaridad”)  a  brochure  on  the  subject. 


184 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


‘  1  The  Indolence  of  the  Filipino  ’ ’ 1  it  is  called,  and, 
if  he  had  written  nothing  else,  thoughtful  men  would 
still  admire  him  for  the  cool,  masterly  marshaling  of 
his  reasonings  in  this.  He  purposes  to  deal  with  the 
truth.  “Let  us  calmly  examine  the  facts,”  he  says  in 
beginning,  “using  on  our  part  all  the  impartiality  of 
which  a  man  is  capable  who  is  convinced  that  there  is 
no  redemption  except  upon  solid  bases  of  virtue.” 
Two  pages  later  he  says : 

Examining  well,  then,  all  the  scenes  and  all  the  men  that 
we  have  known  from  childhood,  and  examining  the  life  of  our 
country,  we  believe  that  indolence  does  exist  there.  The  Fili¬ 
pinos,  who  can  measure  up  with  the  most  active  peoples  in 
the  world,  will  doubtless  not  repudiate  this  admission,  for  it  is 
true  that  in  the  Philippines  one  works  and  struggles  against 
the  climate,  against  nature,  and  against  man.  But  we  must 
not  take  the  exception  for  the  general  rule,  and  should  rather 
seek  the  good  of  our  country  by  stating  what  we  believe  to  be 
true.  We  must  confess  that  indolence  does  actually  and  posi¬ 
tively  exist  there,  only  that,  instead  of  holding  it  to  be  the 
cause  of  the  backwardness  and  the  troubles  of  the  country, 
we  regard  it  as  the  effect  of  the  troubles  and  the  backwardness, 
by  the  fostering  of  a  lamentable  predisposition.  .  .  .2 

The  predisposition  exists.  Why  should  it  not? 

A  hot  climate  requires  of  the  individual  quiet  and  rest, 
just  as  cold  invites  to  labor  and  action.  For  this  reason  the 
Spaniard  is  more  indolent  than  the  Frenchman,  the  French¬ 
man  more  indolent  than  the  German.  The  Europeans  them¬ 
selves  that  so  liberally  reproach  the  residents  of  the  colonies 
(and  I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  Spaniards  but  of  the  Ger- 

lwLa  Indolencia  de  los  Filipinos,”  translated  by  Dr.  Craig.  Manila, 
1913. 

3  Pages  11-12. 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


185 


mans  and  English  themselves),  how  do  they  live  in  tropical 
countries?  Surrounded  with  a  numerous  train  of  servants, 
never  going  about  but  riding  in  a  carriage,  needing  servants 
not  only  to  take  off  their  shoes  for  them  but  even  to  fan  them ! 
And  yet  they  live  and  eat  better,  they  work  for  themselves, 
they  look  for  riches,  they  hope  for  a  future,  free  and  re¬ 
spected,  while  the  poor  colonist,  the  indolent  colonist,  is  badly 
nourished,  has  no  hope,  toils  for  others,  and  works  under 
force  and  compulsion ! 

Perhaps  the  reply  to  this  will  be  that  the  white  men  are  not 
made  to  stand  the  severity  of  the  climate.  A  mistake !  A  man 
can  live  in  any  climate,  if  he  will  only  adapt  himself  to  its 
requirements  and  conditions. 

What  kills  the  Europeans  in  hot  countries  is  the  abuse  of 
liquors,  the  attempt  to  live  according  to  the  nature  of  his  own 
country  under  another  sky  and  another  sun.  We  inhabitants 
of  hot  countries  live  well  in  northern  Europe  whenever  we 
take  the  precautions  the  people  there  take.  Likewise  Euro¬ 
peans  can  endure  the  torrid  zone  if  they  will  but  rid  them¬ 
selves  of  their  prejudices. 

The  fact  is  that  in  tropical  countries  violent  work  is  not  a 
good  thing  as  it  is  in  cold  countries.  In  tropical  countries  it 
is  death,  destruction,  annihilation.  Nature  knows  this  and  has 
therefore  made  the  earth  in  tropical  countries  more  fertile, 
more  productive,  as  a  compensation.  An  hour’s  work  under 
that  burning  sun,  in  the  midst  of  the  pernicious  influence 
springing  from  nature  in  activity,  is  equal  to  a  day’s  work 
in  a  temperate  climate.  It  is  just,  then,  that  the  earth  should 
yield  a  hundredfold ! 1 

Moreover,  do  we  not  see  the  active  European,  who  has 
gained  strength  during  the  winter,  who  feels  the  fresh  blood 
of  spring  boil  in  his  veins,  do  we  not  see  him  abandon  his 
labors  during  the  few  days  of  his  variable  summer,  close  his 


*Page  13. 


/ 


186  THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 

office — where  the  work  is  not,  after  all,  violent,  where,  in  many 
cases,  it  amounts  to  talking  and  gesticulating  in  the  shade  or 
near  a  luncheon  stand — do  we  not  see  him  flee  to  watering- 
places  where  he  site  idle  in  the  cafes  or  idly  strolls  about? 
What  wonder  then  that  the  inhabitant  of  tropical  countries, 
worn  out  and  with  his  blood  thinned  by  the  continuous  and 
excessive  heat,  is  reduced  to  inaction!  Who  is  the  indolent 
one  in  the  Manila  offices  ?  Is  it  the  poor  clerk  who  comes  in  at 
8  in  the  morning  and  leaves  at  4  in  the  afternoon  with  only 
his  umbrella,  who  copies  and  writes  and  works  for  himself  and 
for  his  chief,  or  is  it  the  chief,  who  comes  in  a  carriage  at  10 
o’clock,  leaves  before  12,  reads  his  newspaper  while  smoking 
and,  with  his  feet  cocked  up  on  a  chair  or  a  table,  gossips 
about  all  his  friends  ? 

Man  is  not  a  brute ;  he  is  not  a  machine.  His  object  is  not 
merely  to  produce ;  in  spite  of  the  pretensions  of  some  Chris¬ 
tian  whites  who  would  make  of  the  colored  Christian  a  kind 
of  motive-power  somewhat  more  intelligent  and  less  costly 
than  steam.1 

Rizal  found  that  in  regard  to  indolence  the  Philip¬ 
pines  were  like  a  patient  with  a  long  continued  disease. 
The  doctor  attributes  the  failure  of  his  medicines  to 
the  debility  of  the  patient’s  system,  and  the  patient 
ascribes  his  debilitated  condition  to  the  doctor’s  reme¬ 
dies.  He  followed  his  illustration  by  remarking  that, 
as  in  the  case  of  a  desperate  illness,  so  in  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  Philippines,  the  attendants  seemed  to  lose 
their  heads  and,  instead  of  seeking  the  causes  of  the 
disease  to  remove  them,  devoted  themselves  to  attack¬ 
ing  the  symptoms,  with  here  blood-letting  (taxation), 
there  a  plaster  (forced  labor),  and  there  a  sedative 
(trifling  reform). 

1  Page  15. 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


187 


Every  new  arrival  proposes  a  new  remedy:  one,  seasons  of 
prayer,  the  relics  of  a  saint,  the  viaticum,  the  friars ;  another, 
a  shower-bath ;  still  another,  with  pretensions  to  modern  ideas, 
a  transfusion  of  the  blood  [that  is  to  say,  an  agricultural 
colony  of  Europeans].  It ’s  nothing,  only  the  patient  has 
eight  million  indolent  red  corpuscles  [Filipinos]  ;  some  few 
white  corpuscles  in  the  form  of  an  agricultural  colony  will 
get  us  out  of  the  trouble.  .  .  ,1 

Yes,  transfusion  of  blood,  transfusion  of  blood !  New  life, 
new  vitality!  Yes,  the  new  white  corpuscles  that  you  are 
going  to  inject  into  its  veins,  the  new  white  corpuscles  that 
were  a  cancer  in  another  organism,  will  withstand  all  the  de¬ 
pravity  of  the  system,  will  withstand  the  blood-letting  that  it 
suffers  every  day,  will  have  more  stamina  than  all  the  eight 
million  red  corpuscles,  will  cure  all  the  disorders,  all  the  de¬ 
generation,  all  troubles  in  the  principal  organs. 

Be  thankful  if  they  do  not  become  coagulations  and  produce 
gangrene;  be  thankful  if  they  do  not  reproduce  the  cancer! 

He  comes  then  to  the  central  fact  he  has  under¬ 
taken  to  establish.  Here  it  is  in  the  teeth  of  the  plaus¬ 
ible  assertions  of  prejudice  and  the  selfish  interests 
that  depreciate  the  natives; 

Indolence  in  the  Philippines  is  a  chronic,  but  not  a  heredi¬ 
tary  malady. 

The  Filipinos  have  not  always  been  what  they  are.  Wit¬ 
nesses  to  this  statement  are  all  the  historians  of  the  first  year§ 
after  the  discovery  of  the  islands.2 

Long  before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards  the  Ma¬ 
layan  Filipinos  had  an  organized  and  outstretching 
commerce,  foreign  as  well  as  domestic.  A  Chinese 

1  Page  17. 


188 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


writer  of  the  thirteenth  century  has  recorded  their 
intimate  commercial  relations  with  China,  the  probity 
and  zeal  of  the  Filipino  merchants,  the  great  extent  of 
the  trade  they  carried  on.  They  exported  cotton,  cloth, 
pearls,  tortoise-shell,  betel-nuts,  and  other  commodi¬ 
ties  the  making  or  preparing  or  gathering  of  which 
meant  industry. 

Pigafetta,  a  Spanish  writer  with  Magellan,  speaks 
of  the  great  variety  of  the  island  products.  The  na¬ 
tives  worked  mines,  produced  and  wrought  in  metals, 
made  ingenious  and  effective  weapons,  wove  silk  into 
their  artistic  dresses,  and  even  made  false  teeth  of 
gold.  Their  agricultural  products  were  of  kinds  not 
to  be  had  without  labor. 

The  early  Spaniards  reported  the  Filipinos  to  be 
daring  and  indefatigable  sailors,  whose  fleets  of  mer¬ 
chantmen  covered  the  waters  of  the  Islands  and  made 
far  voyages,  even  regularly  to  Siam.  Filipino  sol¬ 
diers  fought  in  the  wars  of  other  countries.  In  1539 
they  took  part  in  the  wars  of  Sumatra,  and  it  was  their 
valor  that  overthrew  there  a  renowned  potentate,  the 
sultan  of  Atchin. 

Magellan’s  people  testified  that  industriously  the 
Filipinos  tilled  the  soil,  each  man  having  his  own 
field.  It  was  a  wealthy  country:  food-s tuffs  were 
abundant,  the  natives  were  well  fed.  Legaspi’s  expe¬ 
dition  (about  1591)  reported  again  on  their  large 
variety  of  products,  including  manufactures  of  iron, 
porcelain  and  cloth.  Nowhere  was  to  be  noted  poverty 
or  savagery;  business  had  attained  to  an  excellent 
growth.  The  natives  knew  something  about  the  rest 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


189 


of  the  world;  there  were  even  among  them,  before  a 
Spanish  ship  had  ever  anchored  in  Philippine  waters, 
men  that  knew  the  Spanish  language,  having  no  doubt 
acquired  it  in  their  travels.  When  Cebu,  a  city  of  one 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  was  burned  with  all  its 
food-supplies,  its  people  did  not  suffer  hunger,  because 
the  surrounding  country  quickly  and  intelligently  or¬ 
ganized  to  meet  the  emergency  with  abundant  relief. 

All  the  histories  of  those  first  years,  in  short,  abound  in  long 
accounts  about  the  industry  and  agriculture  of  the  natives: 
mines,  gold-washings,  looms,  farms,  barter,  naval  construc¬ 
tion,  raising  of  poultry  and  stock,  weaving  of  silk  and  cotton, 
distilleries,  manufactures  of  arms,  pearl  fisheries,  the  civet 
industry,  the  horn  and  hide  industry,  etc.,  are  things  encoun¬ 
tered  at  every  step,  and,  considering  the  time  and  the  condi¬ 
tions  in  the  Islands,  prove  that  there  was  life,  there  was  ac¬ 
tivity,  there  was  movement.1 

He  cites  de  Morga  to  show  that  indolence  came  upon 
the  Filipinos  after  the  Spanish  domination  and  was 
not  conspicuous  before  that  time.  De  Morga’s  seven 
years  as  lieutenant-governor  of  Manila  should  have 
instructed  him  about  this,  when  he  says  that  the  natives 
under  the  Spaniards  lost  some  of  the  trades  in  which 
they  had  been  most  successful.  They  had  even  for¬ 
gotten  much  about  farming,  the  raising  of  poultry,  of 
live  stock,  of  cotton,  about  the  weaving  of  cloth  as 
they  used  to  weave  it  in  their  paganism  and  for  a 
time  after  their  country  had  been  conquered. 

Other  Spaniards  of  that  period  bore  witness  to  the 
same  decline ;  and  generations  later  a  German  traveler, 

*Page  22. 


190 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


observing  the  differences  between  the  habits  of  the 
natives  under  Spanish  rule  and  of  those  that  were 
still  unsubdued,  asked  if  the  industrious  free  peoples 
would  not  in  their  turn  become  indolent  when  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  Spain  should  be  forced  upon  them.  4  i  The 
Filipinos/ ’  Rizal  justly  concludes  from  these  testi¬ 
monies,  “in  spite  of  the  climate,  in  spite  of  their  few 
needs  (they  were  less  then  than  now),  were  not  the 
indolent  creatures  of  our  time.  ’  ’ 1 

What,  then,  brought  them  down  from  their  normal 
standards  of  activity  and  enterprise? 

A  fatal  combination  of  causes,  he  finds. 

First,  the  continual  wars  and  the  insurrections  that 
were  provoked  by  Spanish  cruelty.  When  there  was 
no  civil  strife  abroad  in  the  Philippines,  able-bodied 
men  were  drafted  to  fight  for  Spain  in  Borneo  or  Indo- 
China;  or  there  were  huge  expeditions,  usually  fail¬ 
ures,  that  took  away  thousands  of  the  best  young  men 
and  never  returned  them.  He  quotes  the  Spanish 
writer,  Gaspar  de  San  Agustin,  showing  how  one  for¬ 
merly  populous  town  had  been  greatly  shorn  of  in¬ 
habitants  because,  being  noted  as  sailors  and  oarsmen, 
the  Government  took  them  for  foreign  service.2  In 
this  way,  the  island  of  Panay,  which  had  fifty  thousand 
families  when  the  Spaniards  came,  had  been  reduced 
to  fifteen  thousand. 

Ten  years  after  the  Legaspi  expedition,  that  is  to 
say,  in  1581,  sixty  years  after  Magellan’s  “discovery,” 
the  islands  had  lost  one  third  of  the  total  population.3 

1  Page  23. 
a  Page  26. 
a  Page  26. 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


191 


Of  course,  it  was  the  young,  the  hardy,  the  capable, 
the  industrious  that  went  by  this  route  to  further  the 
cold  schemes  of  Spanish  ambition. 

Under  such  a  drain  faded  the  moral  and  material  re¬ 
sources  of  the  people. 

Second,  we  are  to  remember  the  ravages  of  the 
pirates.  Before  the  days  of  Magellan  these  audacious 
plunderers  had  with  avidity  pursued  their  calling  in 
Philippine  waters,  but  what  is  not  generally  known 
is  that  their  activities  greatly  increased  under  the 
Spanish  domination.  The  Spaniards  encouraged  the 
pirates,  not  to  prey  upon  Spanish  settlements,  but  to 
terrorize  remote  populations,  to  make  them  amenable 
to  Spanish  rule,  in  some  instances  to  disclose  what 
weapons  the  natives  had  that  these  might  be  snatched 
from  them,  and  sometimes  merely  to  be  rid  of  objec¬ 
tionable  communities.  As  the  pirates  did  a  thriving 
commerce  in  slaves,  to  eliminate,  with  their  help,  the 
undesirable  was  easy.  De  Morga  says: 

The  boldness  of  these  people  of  Mindanao  [pirates]  did 
great  damage  to  the  Visayan  Islands,  as  much  by  what  they 
did  in  them  as  by  the  fear  and  fright  that  the  natives  ac¬ 
quired  ;  because  the  natives  were  in  the  power  of  the 
Spaniards,  who  held  them  subject  and  tributary  and  un¬ 
armed,  in  such  manner  that  they  did  not  protect  them  from 
their  enemies  nor  leave  them  means  with  which  to  defend 
themselves  as  they  did  when  there  were  no  Spaniards  in  the 
country.1 

Rizal  lays  the  emphasis  of  capitals  upon  this  last 
phrase,  which  indeed  seems  powerful  evidence,  coming 
from  such  a  source. 

*Page  27. 


192 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


The  pirates  came  every  year,  sometimes  five  times, 
sometimes  ten,  and  an  average  visit  cost  the  Islands 
more  than  eight  hundred  persons. 

Gaspar  de  San  Agustin  tells  of  an  Island  near  Cebu 
that  by  1608  the  pirates  had  almost  depopulated  and 
points  to  the  fact  that  the  natives  had  no  defense. 

Third,  forced  labor.  This  was  a  grievous  matter: 
again  and  again  it  drove  the  Filipinos  to  revolt,  but 
the  Spaniards  would  learn  nothing  and  to  the  last 
clung  to  a  thing  certain  to  wreck  them.  Its  evils  were 
first  manifest  in  the  ship-building  enterprises  the 
Spaniards  undertook.  They  found  the  Filipinos 
among  the  best  natural  ship-builders  in  the  world,  hav¬ 
ing  constructed,  as  before  noted,  some  of  the  largest 
vessels  then  afloat.  Other  great  vessels  were  planned 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  to  get  out  quickly  the  needed 
timbers  they  compelled  thousands  of  natives  to  work 
without  pay  and  to  provide  their  own  food;  a  viler 
than  ordinary  form  of  slavery.  To  get  out  the  masts 
for  one  galleon,  six  thousand  natives  were  employed 
for  three  months,  finding  their  own  subsistence.  Trees 
large  enough  to  furnish  these  masts  grew  only  in  the 
interior ;  the  labor  of  moving  them  through  jungle  and 
over  mountains  was  enormous.  Fernando  de  los  Rios 
Coronel  says  that  “the  surrounding  country  had  to  be 
depopulated”  in  the  ship-building  work  and  that  the 
natives  furnished  the  timbers  “with  immense  labor, 
damage,  and  cost  to  themselves.”  San  Agustin  says 
that  “the  continual  labor  of  cutting  timber  for  his 
Majesty’s  shipyards”  was  a  great  cause  of  the  decline 
in  population  because  it  hindered  people  “from  culti¬ 
vating  the  very  fertile  plain  they  have.” 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


193 


Fourth,  taxes  and  the  cruelty  of  the  Government. 
De  los  Rios  Coronet  cites  “the  natives  that  were  exe¬ 
cuted,  those  that  left  their  wives  and  children  and  fled 
in  disgust  to  the  mountains,  those  that  were  sold  into 
slavery  to  pay  the  taxes  levied  upon  them,  ’  ’  among  the 
elements  disappearing  from  the  population.  There 
were  also,  it  appears  from  San  Agustin,  to  be  added 
“those  flogged  to  death,  women  crushed  to  death  by 
their  heavy  burdens,  those  that  sleep  in  the  fields  and 

there  bear  and  nurse  their  children  and  die  bitten  bv 

%> 

poisonous  vermin,  the  many  that  are  executed  or  left 
to  die  of  hunger,  those  that  eat  poisonous  herbs,  and 
the  mothers  that  kill  their  children  in  bearing  them.  ’ ’ 1 
It  is  not  an  exhilarating  picture ;  to  believe  it  we  must 
remind  ourselves  that  it  is  limned  by  Spaniards :  it  can 
have  no  impulse  to  a  hostile  exaggeration. 

The  fields  once  cleared  ceased  to  be  cultivated;  the 
towns  once  flourishing  lost  population  and  trade.  The 
Filipino  was  launched  on  a  backward  career.  Because, 

Fifth,  there  was  the  psychological  or  spiritual  fruit¬ 
age  of  all  this  lethargy. 

Worse  than  all  the  others  and  the  culminating  cause, 
this  was.  The  Filipino’s  spirit  sank  under  the  alien 
yoke.  It  appears  that  he  no  longer  cared;  what  was 
there  to  care  for?  Spanish  polity  offered  him  in  ex¬ 
change  for  his  lost  liberty  here  only  the  prospect  of 
salvation  in  another  life.  The  bargain  was  not  stimu¬ 
lating.  Salvation  depended  in  no  degree  upon  ter¬ 
restrial  industry ;  the  idle  were  saved  equally  with  the 
active.  We  think,  besides,  that  a  racial  spring  was 
touched  too  fine  to  be  suspected  by  the  trampling  SOl- 

^age  30. 


194 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


diers  that  Spain  sent  over  to  walk  upon  these  bowed 
necks.  The  Malay  responds  to  kindness ;  under  blows, 
compulsion,  or  superior  brute  force  he  retires  within 
himself  into  a  sullen  apathy.  This  now  fell  upon  the 
native  wherever  the  Spanish  flag  waved  and  to  the 
extent  that  the  Spanish  methods  prevailed.  To  go 
beyond  Rizal’s  able  treatise  and  to  record  what  even  he 
could  not  have  expected,  the  Americans,  when  their  day 
came,  noted  with  astonishment  that  the  Filipinos  of 
the  South  were  more  active,  industrious,  and  resilient 
than  their  brothers  in  the  North,  although  this  was  to 
reverse  the  usual  order  of  nature.  Some  Americans 
ascribed  the  Southerner’s  advantage  to  his  religion 
and  credited  to  Mohammedanism  a  virtue  it  hardly 
possessed.  The  real  explanation,  which  abundantly 
confirms  Rizal’s  thesis,  is  that  the  Southerner  had 
never  gone  under  the  lethal  yoke  of  the  Spanish  con¬ 
ception  of  society. 

Even  when  actual  slavery  was  not  enforced  upon  the 
native,  the  returns  for  his  labor  and  efforts  were  so 
meager  and  uncertain  he  had  no  longer  an  incentive 
to  work.  There  was  a  kind  of  padrone  or  contractor 
called  the  encomendero  to  whom  the  people  of  a  dis¬ 
trict  were  virtually  delivered  over  that  he  might  ex¬ 
tract  from  them  all  available  profit  and  steer  back  to 
Spain  with  both  pockets  stuffed  with  the  gold  he  had 
wrung  from  their  toil.  Usually  this  person  had  no 
other  interest  than  to  make  his  exit  as  early  as  possible 
and  as  heavily  laden,  to  the  which  ends  conscience 
should  be  no  hindrance.  He  robbed  the  natives  of 
produce  where  he  could  not  steal  labor;  he  used  false 
measures  in  buying  and  selling.  The  unhappy  Fili- 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


195 


pinos  had  no  appeal.  In  one  town  where  a  particularly 
brutal  encomendero  exacted  additional  tribute  by 
using  a  steelyard  twice  as  long  as  it  should  have  been, 
they  rose  and  tried  to  kill  him — it  appears,  unfortu¬ 
nately,  without  success.1 

De  San  Agustin  gives  these  practices  as  the  reason 
why  the  gold-mines  of  Panay,  once  4 4 very  rich,”  had 
ceased  to  be  worked;  the  natives  preferred  to  live  in 
poverty  rather  than  to  work  under  the  conditions  im¬ 
posed  upon  them.  Exploitation  was  the  business  of 
the  Spaniard  (from  the  governor  down),  and  the  only 
business  that  seems  to  have  been  attended  to  with 
diligence.  To  get  rich  quickly  and  to  get  home  to 
spend  the  money  was  the  real  inspiration,  an  impulse 
not  unknown  in  other  parts  of  the  earth  where  with  his 
trusty  rifle  the  white  man  has  imposed  his  peculiar 
civilization  upon  his  dark-skinned  brother.  In  some 
places  the  dark  brother  under  these  ministrations  lies 
down  and  dies;  in  the  Philippines  he  ceased  to  work 
except  under  the  lash  or  when  he  was  fomenting  an 
insurrection.  Reviewing  these  facts  the  superior 
wisdom  supposed  to  lurk  mysteriously  under  the  white 
skin  seems  to  require  much  explanation. 

Rizal  points  out  that  while  in  his  time  the  pirates 
had  ceased  from  troubling  and  the  Dutch  colonists 
were  at  rest,  the  other  causes  of  the  Filipino  uneasi¬ 
ness  went  on  undiminished  to  a  loud  chorus  of  denunci¬ 
ation  from  the  elements  responsible  for  these  evils. 
As  usual,  names  had  shifted,  the  essentials  of  exploita¬ 
tion  were  unchanged.  The  encomendero  was  no  longer 
the  commanding  figure  in  the  process  of  extracting  and 

1  Page  37. 


196 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


coining  the  toilers’  sweat;  it  was  now  the  local  gov¬ 
ernor,  the  friar,  or  both,  but  the  machinery  in  use  was 
the  same.  He  quotes  a  French  traveler  of  his  own 
time  that  observed  with  astonishment  the  operations 
of  a  typical  governor  in  whose  hands  “the  high  and 
noble  functions  he  performs  are  nothing  more  than 
instruments  of  gain.  He  monopolizes  all  the  business 
and  instead  of  developing  the  love  of  work,  instead  of 
stimulating  the  natives  to  overcome  the  too  natural 
indolence,  he  with  the  abuse  of  his  powers  thinks  only 
of  destroying  all  competition  that  may  trouble  him  or 
attempt  to  participate  in  his  profits.  It  matters  little 
to  him  that  the  country  is  impoverished,  without  com¬ 
merce,  without  industry,  if  only  the  governor  is  quickly 
enriched.,,  1 

The  whole  story  deserves  the  attention  of  mankind; 
the  debacle  and  its  causes.  It  is  a  simulacrum  of 
exploitation  and  exploitation’s  fatal  results. 

To  do  business  in  the  Philippines,  as  we  understand 
business,  was  almost  impossible,  year  of  grace  1890, 
so  numerous  were  the  obstacles,  documents,  papers, 
signatures,  tangles  of  red  tape  to  be  unwound,  officers 
to  be  bribed.  If  there  is  no  commerce,  how  can  there 
be  industry!  If  there  is  no  industry  what  shall  the 
masses  of  people  do  but  idle  !  ‘  ‘  The  most  commercial 
and  most  industrious  countries  have  been  the  freest,” 
says  Rizal;  “France,  England,  and  the  United  States 
prove  this.  Hong-Kong,  while  it  is  not  worth  the  most 
insignificant  of  the  Philippines,  has  more  commercial 
movement  than  all  these  Islands  together  because  it  Is 
free  and  well  governed.” 

'Page  38. 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


197 


The  Spanish  aristocrats  in  the  Islands  contributed 
to  the  general  impulse  to  indolence.  They  posed  as 
superior  persons  and  exalted  models,  yet  they  did  no 
work  and  despised  all  that  labored.  The  vice  of 
gambling,  which  the  Spaniards  deliberately  encour¬ 
aged  in  the  natives,  added  to  the  general  stagnation; 
not  only  cock-fighting  (officially  protected  and  a  source 
of  government  revenue)  but  other  gaming.  It  is  a 
passion  to  which  the  Malay  blood  seems  peculiarly 
susceptible,  as  the  Chinese  are  to  opium-smoking. 
Under  government  encouragement  gambling  became 
almost  a  native  obsession  wherever  the  Spanish  rule 
was  strongest.  Having  taught  them  to  gamble,  the 
Spaniards  denounced  the  Filipinos  as  a  race  of  gam¬ 
blers;  but  this  was  again  a  species  of  injustice  of 
which  the  Spaniard  had  no  monopoly.  It  is  easy  to 
instance  white  communities  that  refuse  to  allow  colored 
men  to  perform  any  but  menial  offices  and  then  despise 
them  as  a  race  of  menials.  As  to  this  practice  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  for  example,  reference  may 
profitably  be  had  to  the  pointed  comments  of  Mr. 
George  Bernard  Shaw. 

Agriculture  is  the  natural  business  of  the  Islands. 
Hebetudinous  government  in  Rizal’s  time  did  nothing 
to  encourage  or  even  to  defend  it.  The  farmer  went 
his  way,  preyed  upon  by  the  most  villainous  system  of 
interest  pillage  so  far  disclosed  in  human  affairs,1  and 
the  Government  gave  him  never  so  much  as  a  friendly 
word.  When  crops  failed,  when  typhoons  wrought 
huge  destruction,  when  the  plague  of  locusts  turned 
some  great  green  valley  to  naked  desolation,  the  Gov- 

1 ‘  ‘  The  Outlook  for  the  Philippines,  ’ 1  Chap.  X. 


198 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


emment  looked  on  indifferently  and  sent  another  tax 
collector. 

It  would  not  even  seek  a  market  for  the  insular 
products. 

“Add  to  this  lack  of  material  inducement, ’ ’  says 
Rizal,  “the  absence  of  moral  stimulus,  and  you  will 
see  how  he  who  is  not  indolent  in  that  country  must 
needs  be  a  madman  or  at  least  a  fool.” 

The  injustice  with  which  the  native  was  treated 
everywhere,  merely  because  of  his  birth  and  his  color, 
atrophied  his  energies;  such  were  the  windings  and 
curlings  of  the  vile  snake  of  racial  antipathy.  Let  the 
Filipino  with  whatsoever  effort  achieve  whatsoever 
prize  in  fair  competition  with  a  white  man,  and  the 
wreath  he  had  won  by  worth  would  be  snatched  from 
him  by  trickery  or  plain  theft.  Why,  then,  should  he 
strive? 

But  still  worse  were  the  evils  of  what  was  called 
by  way  of  euphony  the  educational  system  maintained 
under  this  dispensation. 

Take  the  best  of  these  schools,  or  so-called  schools, 
and  at  their  best.  “They  amount,”  says  Rizal,  “to 
five  or  ten  years  each  of  150  days  at  most,  in  which 
the  youth  comes  in  contact  with  those  very  priests  that 
boldly  proclaim  that  it  is  an  evil  for  the  natives  to 
know  Castilian  [Spanish],  that  the  native  should  not  be 
separated  from  his  carabao,1  that  he  should  not  have 
any  further  aspirations,  and  so  on;  five  to  ten  years 
in  which  the  majority  of  the  students  have  grasped 
nothing  more  than  that  no  one  understands  what  the 
books  say,  not  even  the  professors  themselves,  per- 

1  Flat-horned  buffalo,  the  beast  of  burden  in  the  Philippines. 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


199 


haps;  and  these  five  to  ten  years  have  to  offset  the 
daily  preachment  of  the  whole  life,  that  preachment 
which  lowers  the  dignity  of  man,  which  by  degrees 
brutally  deprives  him  of  the  sentiment  of  self-esteem, 
that  eternal,  stubborn,  constant  labor  to  bow  the  na¬ 
tive’s  neck,  to  make  him  accept  the  yoke,  to  place  him 
on  a  level  with  the  beast. 

“Deprive  a  man,  then,  of  his  dignity,  and  you  not 
only  deprive  him  of  his  moral  strength  but  you  also 
make  him  useless  even  for  those  that  wish  to  make 
use  of  him.  Every  creature  has  its  stimulus,  its  main¬ 
spring.  Man’s  is  his  self-esteem.  Take  it  away  from 
him  and  he  is  a  corpse,  and  he  that  seeks  activity  in 
a  corpse  will  encounter  only  worms.”  1 

Finally  there  was  the  paralysis  laid  upon  the  Fili¬ 
pino  because  he  was  divested  of  the  infinite  sustaining 
and  guiding  strength  of  a  national  sentiment. 

Without  this  no  people  can  realize  the  good  that  is 
potential  within  them,  no  people  can  ever  attain  to  the 
self-expression  that  is  their  due,  and  no  people  will 
ever  manifest  their  normal  activities.  “A  man  in  the 
Philippines  is  only  an  individual — he  is  not  a  member 
of  a  nation.  He  is  forbidden  and  denied  the  right  of 
association,  and  is  therefore  weak  and  sluggish.  The 
Philippines  is  an  organism  whose  cells  seem  to  have 
no  arterial  system  to  irrigate  it  or  nervous  system  to 
communicate  its  impressions.  .  .  .  The  result  of  this 
is  that  if  a  prejudicial  measure  is  ordered,  no  one  pro¬ 
tests  :  all  goes  well  apparently  until  later  the  evils  are 
felt.  Another  blood-letting  and  as  the  organism  has 
neither  nerves  nor  voice  the  physician  proceeds  in  the 

1  Page  49. 


200 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


belief  that  the  treatment  is  not  injuring  it.  It  needs 
a  reform,  but  as  it  must  not  speak,  it  keeps  silent  and 
remains  with  the  need.  ’  ’ 1 

Thus  of  the  possible  contribution  of  these  people  the 
world  was  deprived  because  a  grotesquely  unintelligent 
tyranny  stifled  the  expression  of  their  natural  forces. 
It  is  the  office  of  absolutism  to  try  to  make  men  think 
alike.  This  absolutism  tried  to  keep  them  from  think¬ 
ing  at  all. 

Once  the  Filipino  was  active,  alert,  industrious, 
prosperous.  Now  he  had  become  inert,  often  inept, 
indifferent,  poor.  For  these  transformations,  behold 
here  the  reasons.  They  are  enough. 


With  more  than  one  purpose  we  have  dwelt  at 
length  upon  this  remarkable  treatise.  It  shows  RizaPs 
mind,  how  clear  and  strong,  and  his  thinking,  how 
firm  and  sure.  It  shows  how  logically  he  arranged  his 
ideas  to  a  climax,  a  faculty  that  marks  all  his  writings. 
It  shows  how  well  based  upon  reading  and  reason,  no 
less  than  upon  observation,  was  his  faith  in  the  Fili¬ 
pino  people.  Not  from  mere  instinct  nor  from  racial 
prejudice,  he  felt  that  here  was  a  great  and  suppressed 
power.  We  dwell  upon  it  also  because  it  offers  an 
unequaled  picture  of  the  Philippines  after  three  hun¬ 
dred  years  of  alien  rule  and  indicates  the  appalling 
boundaries  of  the  task  that  he  had  single-handed 
undertaken.  Courage  is  the  quality  that  mankind  has 
elected  most  to  honor.  Surely  the  courage  of  battle- 

1  Page  56, 


FILIPINO  INDOLENCE 


201 


fields  is  little  compared  with  the  supreme  courage  of  a 
man  that  looking  level-eyed  upon  such  terrific  difficul¬ 
ties  as  are  outlined  here  sets  himself  to  the  one  busi¬ 
ness  of  combating  and  overcoming  them. 

One  other  reflection  pertains  to  this  chapter,  pro¬ 
foundly  suggestive  to  any  mind  that  will  give  heed  to 
it.  After  all  these  generations  of  a  system  so  elabo¬ 
rately  designed  to  annihilate  their  spirits  and  chloro¬ 
form  their  energies,  the  Malays  of  the  Islands  were 
still  unerased.  A  few  years  after  RizaPs  so  able  plea 
for  them  had  been  written  they  were  in  arms  beating 
back  the  best  troops  of  the  oppressor.  Thirty  years 
later,  under  changed  auspices,  they  were  giving  to  the 
world  a  conspicuous  example  of  intelligent  and  suc¬ 
cessful  self-government.  No  sooner  was  applied  to 
them  the  stimulus  of  a  measure  of  freedom  than  the 
old  reproach  of  indolence  began  to  fail. 

In  thirty  years  they  had  demonstrated  the  truth  of 
all  this  man  had  said  of  them.  Sympathetic  insight 
proved  to  be  better  than  the  solemn  platitudes  of  wise 
men  reasoning  backward.  As  you  see  the  Filipino 
now,  said  the  wise  men,  so  he  must  be  always.  Indo¬ 
lence — it  is  of  the  race  and  incurable!  With  a  dash 
of  his  pen  Rizal  sent  all  this  seven  ways.  He  knew  the 
heart  of  Filipinas ;  the  wise  men  knew  only  what  had 
been  written  by  somebody  who  had  read  what  some¬ 
body  else  had  deduced  about  her. 


CHAPTER  XI 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 

MORE  than  the  persecutions  launched  against  his 
family  disturbed  Rizal  in  the  news  he  was 
receiving  now  from  Manila.  The  fire  of  discontent  was 
rising  among  the  people  of  the  Philippines ;  the  letters 
of  his  friends  foreshadowed  an  explosion.  Not  revolu¬ 
tion  by  peaceful  means  was  at  hand  but  another  civil 
war.  He  determined  to  go  to  Madrid  that  he  might 
talk  with  the  Filipinos  there  about  these  storm-signals 
and  at  the  same  time  lodge  with  the  Spanish  Govern¬ 
ment  a  formal  protest  against  the  eviction  of  the 
family  from  its  Calamba  property. 

At  Madrid  he  found  the  situation  much  changed  in 
the  five  years  of  his  absence.  In  the  Filipino  colony  the 
feeling  had  gained  that  from  such  a  Government  noth¬ 
ing  was  to  be  won  by  appeals  and  agitation.  For  an 
illustration  men  pointed  to  Cuba.  Petitions,  reason¬ 
ings,  arguments,  beseechings  wrought  nothing.  What¬ 
ever  Cuba  had  gained  was  tribute  to  its  sword.  Against 
this  Rizal  still  counseled.  Even  in  such  a  crisis  he 
could  not  rid  his  mind  of  the  doctrine  of  fitness  for 
self-government,  and  so  long  as  he  reasoned  more  than 
he  allowed  himself  to  feel,  he  could  not  compromise 
with  his  overmastering  horror  of  war. 

In  this,  again,  he  had  outstripped  the  current  thought 

of  his  age.  A  world  without  war  was  then  the  dream 

202 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 


203 


of  a  few  enthusiasts,  looking  to  another  generation  or 
to  some  mystic  transformation  in  the  chemistry  of 
human  blood ;  what  were  called  practical  men  went  on 
devising  new  torpedoes  and  more  powerful  explosives 
for  the  next  conflict.  In  his  own  way,  different  from 
theirs,  he  was  himself  as  truly  a  practical  man  as  ever 
lived,  and  a  warless  humanity  was  no  dream  to  him; 
he  thought  he  could  see  it  close  at  hand.  He  thought 
he  could  see  his  fellow-men  of  all  lands  surrendering 
the  lunacy  of  combat  for  a  rational  settlement  of  inter¬ 
national  troubles  by  agreement  and  arbitration.  Out 
of  the  reflexes  of  his  own  thought  and  spirit  he  was 
instructed  that  the  hour  for  this  transformation  had 
come. 

Up  to  that  time,  certainly,  the  lessons  of  history,  his 
favorite  study,  were  against  him.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  a  condition  of  oppression  or  general  injus¬ 
tice  is  in  essence  a  condition  of  violence,  and  so  far  in 
the  human  story  half-emancipated  man  has  found  no 
way  to  end  one  condition  of  violence  except  by  means 
of  another.  “It  will  have  blood,  they  say,  blood 
will  have  blood,’ ’  might  have  been  written  across  the 
gates  of  every  house  of  tyranny.  The  hope  that  the 
frightful  wrongs  laid  upon  the  Filipinos  could  be  an 
exception  to  this  primordial  rule  was  alluring  to  a  soul 
like  Rizal’s.  We  can  see  now  that  in  the  existing 
stage  of  civilization  it  was  no  better  founded  than  the 
other  deceptive  notion  that  the  sufferings  of  the  com¬ 
mon  people  of  France  under  the  Ancient  Regime  could 
have  had  any  result  but  retribution  in  kind.  As  a 
matter  of  strict  fact,  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  estab¬ 
lished  years  before  Dr.  Guillotin  thought  of  his  device 


204 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


of  “a  certain  movable  framework  with  a  sack  and  a 
knife  in  it,  terrible  in  history.”  It  was  in  reality 
assured  by  the  fathers  of  many  innocent  and  well 
meaning  ladies  and  gentlemen  whose  heads  it  rolled 
into  the  Seine — a  painful  thought,  but  historically 
indisputable.  The  tierce  philosophy  of  these  records 
Rizal  could  not  assimilate ;  the  poet  in  him  revolted  at 
the  ugliness  of  hatred;  he  had  too  genuine  a  love  of 
his  own  kind  to  tolerate  cruelty.  Whether  in  the  mass 
or  toward  individuals  he  could  not  endure  it.  These 
seem  to  constitute  the  only  set  of  facts  his  mind  was 
unable  to  absorb.  He  could  in  four  weeks  master  a 
language  and  could  not  in  a  lifetime  well  comprehend 
the  caveman’s  logic  of  blows. 

This  amiable  strabismus  half  blinded  him  to  what 
was  really  impending  in  his  own  country.  The  truth 
was  that  the  System  was  slowly  forcing  a  revolt  there; 
not  intentionally,  but  after  the  manner  of  all  drunken 
power.  To  lay  bare  the  iniquities  of  that  System  was 
to  send  against  it  the  torch  and  ax.  Every  page  of 
“Noli  Me  Tangere”  was  in  effect  a  call  to  battle.  He 
never  suspected  this,  but  fact  it  was  nevertheless.  To 
imagine,  as  he  at  one  time  imagined,  that  intrenched 
greed  would  without  a  struggle  surrender  its  privileges 
and  lay  by  the  cracking  of  its  whips  was  to  imagine 
that  which  never  was  nor  shall  be.  The  reversion  to 
primitive  standards  was  inaugurated,  not  by  Filipino 
revolutionists,  but  by  the  System  itself,  which,  denying 
justice,  left  to  the  harassed  multitudes  nothing  but 
revolution. 

At  this  crux  of  his  story,  when  he  appeared  at  Mad- 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 


205 


rid  as  the  champion  of  an  impossible  peace,  and  the 
eyes  and  hearts  of  all  his  countrymen  were  turning  to 
him,  the  time  may  be  good  to  describe  the  man  that 
had  already  wielded  so  tremendous  a  power. 

He  was  then  in  his  thirty-first  year.  The  first  im¬ 
pression  one  had  of  him  was  of  wholesome  vigor  and 
physical  well-being.  He  was  of  rather  slender  build, 
but  all  of  muscle  and  sinew  compact,  for  he  never 
remitted  his  exercises.  In  height,  he  was  five  feet, 
four  inches ;  coming  of  what  seems  to  Occidental  eyes 
an  undersized  people.  From  long  hours  at  his  desk  he 
had  contracted  a  slight  stoop.  His  handsome  face 
retained  its  fine  boyish  oval,  but  rugged  character  and 
unshakable  firmness  were  now  stamped  upon  it,  and 
an  expression  of  melancholy.  His  eyes  "were  still 
remarked  for  their  brightness.  His  hands  were  small 
and  shapely,  his  feet  noticeably  small.1 

His  voice  was  low  in  pitch,  of  a  noble  tonality,  and 
so  strangely  vibrant  that  one  hearing  it  at  its  best 
never  forgot  it.  One  of  his  rules  was  never  to  raise 
it;  he  spoke  always  with  an  identical  restraint.  With 
such  a  voice  and  with  his  flow  of  apt  and  picturesque 
language  he  was  equipped  for  public  speaking,  in 
which  he  had  made  on  several  occasions  a  rather 
marked  success;  yet  he  always  thought  lightly  of  the 
art  of  oratory  and  refused  to  pursue  it. 

Whether  among  his  friends  or  in  his  writings  he  had 
ordinarily  little  to  say  about  himself,  and  there  is  but 
one  recorded  instance  when  he  seemed  to  give  way  to 

1  These  and  the  succeeding  particulars  are  communicated  or  verified  by 
friends  that  knew  him  in  Madrid  at  this  time,  had  been  in  the  university 
with  him  or  observed  him  later. 


206 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


the  bitter  recollections  that  must  at  times  have  assailed 
him.  On  this  occasion  he  said  to  a  friend  in  London 
with  whom  he  was  walking : 

“I  have  traveled  around  the  world.  I  have  studied 
the  important  nations  by  personal  and  direct  observa¬ 
tion.  I  have  noted  well  all  the  races  that  have  con¬ 
tributed  to  human  progress.  I  speak  all  their 
languages  and  others.  And  yet,”  he  added  with  a 
melancholy  smile,  “I  am  to  the  friars  merely  a  vulgar 
half-breed.” 

At  Madrid,  one  of  his  intimates  from  the  Islands 
was  Teodoro  Sandiko,  later  to  be  a  leader  among  his 
people  and  an  honored  member  of  the  Philippine 
Senate.  In  a  letter  recalling  their  association,  Sen¬ 
ator  Sandiko  once  wrote : 1 

Rizal  was  fond  of  physical  exercise  and  so  was  I.  We 
practised  fencing  together  and  soon  became  good  and  close 
friends. 

He  was  simple  in  his  manners,  but  profound  in  his  studies 
and  researches,  analytical  in  his  mental  processes,  reflective 
rather  than  sentimental.  He  was  extremely  methodical  and 
industrious ;  I  never  saw  him  idle.  He  had  great  confidence 
in  himself,  was  firm  in  his  faith,  resourceful  in  the  solving  of 
a  difficult  situation,  swift  and  sure  in  his  decisions.  His  habit 
was  to  answer  without  hesitation  and  succinctly  any  question 
that  might  be  put  to  him ;  he  had  never  to  hunt  for  an  idea  or 
a  word.  He  was  the  most  loyal  of  friends ;  anything  he  pos¬ 
sessed  was  at  his  friend’s  disposal.  He  was  courteous,  affec¬ 
tionate,  affable,  sincere,  but  rather  serious.  His  mental  state 
may  be  judged  from  the  mass  of  material  he  contributed  to 
“La  Solidaridad, ”  so  varied,  so  forceful  and  so  carefully 
prepared. 

1  In  a  letter  to  the  present  authors. 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 


207 


Wherever  he  went,  he  seemed  without  effort  to  make 
friends  of  all  men  that  came  near  him.  Set  down  in 
a  steamer  full  of  strangers,  he  would  be  noted  at  once 
by  every  passenger  and  before  dinner  was  served  would 
be  on  good  terms  with  most  of  the  persons  on  board, 
crew  included.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  he  seldom  smiled, 
usually  seemed  distrait  in  the  midst  of  others’  mirth, 
and  was  sometimes  lost  in  gloomy  musing,  when  he 
seemed  all  unaware  of  his  surroundings.  In  the  opinion 
of  his  friends,  he  had  almost  no  self-consciousness; 
certainly,  all  his  life  he  hated  affectations  and  never 
lost  a  chance  to  scorch  them  with  his  terrible  sarcasm ; 
for  this  man  of  the  world,  ordinarily  so  suave  and  cour¬ 
teous  that  he  won  good  will  even  among  his  enemies, 
had  certain  reserve  funds  of  censuring  speech  he  could 
make  as  bitter  as  gall.  Whether  he  sat,  walked,  stood, 
talked,  or  listened  he  was  always  natural,  always  com¬ 
posed,  and  always  the  sure  master  of  himself.  When 
he  went  through  the  United  States  he  noticed  that  the 
men  there  conversed  without  gesticulating,  contrary  to 
the  practice  of  the  Spaniards  and  most  Europeans. 
On  reflection  he  deemed  the  practice  to  lend  strength 
to  utterance  and  thereafter  made  it  a  rule  to  keep  his 
hands  still  while  he  talked. 

The  image  of  a  man  that  seldom  smiled  and  yet  so 
easily  won  his  fellows  to  like  him  seems  out  of  the 
drawing  of  nature  and  yet  in  this  case  is  essentially 
true.  There  was  in  Rizal’s  face  something  almost 
irresistibly  winning.  Good  will  looked  out  of  it  and 
warm  human  sympathy  and  a  kind  of  downright  sin¬ 
cerity  that  found  a  way  to  the  notice  of  even  the 
dullest.  It  seemed  to  one  studying  him  attentively 


208 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


that  on  the  original  lines  of  a  being  all  love,  gentle¬ 
ness,  and  meditation  had  been  stamped  later  a  great 
melancholy  and  a  great  and  high  resolve.  Lowly  men 
seemed  to  understand  instinctively  something  in  him 
they  could  never  have  formulated  nor  described,  some¬ 
thing  friendly  and  good;  and  men  of  learning  turned 
with  a  similar  impulse  to  a  mind  that  showed  itself  so 
wealthy  and  still  so  unpretending. 

He  loved  music,  was  a  good  judge  of  it,  and  com¬ 
posed  it  readily  and  well.  He  loved  flowers  as  all 
other  things  beautiful — of  course,  being  an  artist  born 
and  the  instinct  ineradicable  in  him!  That  charming 
poem  of  his, i ‘The  Flowers  of  Heidelberg’ ’ 1  was  writ¬ 
ten  in  the  intervals  between  his  pursuits  of  the  most 
advanced  discoveries  and  driest  facts  in  ophthalmol¬ 
ogy,  surgery,  ethnology,  entomology,  anthropology, 
and  the  penning  of  some  of  the  fiercest  passages  of 
condensed  wrath  to  be  found  in  any  language.  It  is 
likely  that  he  saw  nothing  grotesque  in  these  abrupt 
transitions;  perfectly  sincere  men  have  little  time  for 
such  nice  questionings.  If  we  regard  the  making  of 
poetry  as  the  serious  business  of  his  soul,  which  it  was, 
his  chief  intellectual  relaxation  was  chess,  of  which,  by 
the  time  of  his  second  visit  to  Madrid,  he  had  become 
a  notable  player.2 

He  had  as  little  vanity  as  any  man  conscious  of  his 
powers  could  reasonably  have.  Yet  he  was  always 
careful  of  his  appearance  and  took  pains  to  dress  well, 
after  the  most  modest  taste.  Even  when  he  was  pov¬ 
erty-stricken  in  Berlin  and  living  on  a  daily  bowl  of 

1  See  Appendix  A. 

2  Mr.  Canon;  also  Craig. 


REMNANTS  FROM  RIZAl’s  LIBRARY 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 


209 


coffee  and  piece  of  bread,  he  would  allow  himself  no 
laxity  in  his  attire. 

Once  he  wrote  of  some  pupils  of  his  that  he  was 
teaching  them  to  behave  like  men.1  It  was  a  point  of 
weight  with  him.  His  conception  of  a  man  was  one 
that  had  at  all  times  himself  in  full  command.  This 
virtue  he  had  practised  assiduously  from  those  old 
days  at  the  Ateneo  when  first  he  perceived  its  splen¬ 
dors  ;  and  now  he  was  so  truly  captain  of  his  own  soul 
that,  as  we  have  seen,  he  could  endure  privations, 
subdue  appetites,  and  urge  himself  along  his  road  by 
the  sheer  force  of  his  will.  He  was  the  greater  part 
of  his  life  desperately  poor ;  yet  if  he  had  been  willing 
to  practise  his  profession  for  gain  a  great  fortune  was 
within  his  grasp.  In  whatsoever  conditions  he  found 
himself  he  still  tried  to  adhere  to  that  plan  he  had 
adopted  at  the  Ateneo  of  apportioning  his  day  accord¬ 
ing  to  a  schedule.  He  was  more  careful  of  his  time 
than  a  miser  of  his  gold ;  he  would  waste  no  hour.  To 
his  friends  he  admitted  that  when  he  sat  silent  in  com¬ 
pany  and  seemed  to  be  moody  he  was  composing  his 
next  article  for  4 4 La  Solidaridad”  or  a  new  chapter 
in  one  of  his  books.  He  was  the  least  superstitious  of 
men,  but  for  years  he  had  a  presentiment  that  he 
would  die  by  shooting.  Once  crossing  Bagumbayan 
Field  he  pointed  to  the  place  of  execution  and  said  to 
a  companion,  “On  that  spot  I  shall  some  day  be  put 
to  death  by  a  firing-squad. ’ 1  As  a  final  light  upon  a 
singular  character,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  he  was  not 
oppressed  by  this  foreboding.  It  was  accompanied  in 
his  mind,  as  nearly  as  one  can  discern,  with  a  convic- 

1  The  letter  will  be  found  in  a  later  chapter. 


210 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


tion  that  the  cause  for  which  he  stood  must  have  its 
victims,  and  to  this  extent  and  no  farther  showed  in 
him  the  fatalism  supposed  to  be  a  distinctive  trait  of 
the  Malay. 

He  was  ordinarily  so  calm,  so  self-contained,  so 
much  the  example  of  the  reasoning  man  and  the  like, 
that  it  seems  highly  incongruous  to  think  of  him  as  a 
duelist;  yet  twice  he  challenged  to  mortal  combat.  It 
appears  that  under  his  coolly  borne  exterior  there  was 
tire,  and  even  his  beautiful  faith  in  the  supremacy  of 
reason  had  not  eradicated  all  the  Old  Adam  from  his 
blood.  He  seems  never  to  have  thought  that  the  vio¬ 
lence  he  contemplated  was  nothing  but  a  minute  speci¬ 
men  of  the  wTar-making  he  denounced,  nor  that  in 
sending  challenges  he  reverted  from  his  most  cher¬ 
ished  doctrines.  Perhaps  if  the  inconsistency  had 
been  pointed  out  to  him  then  it  would  not  have  dis¬ 
turbed  him,  and  certainly  it  is  a  hobgoblin  that  need 
not  disturb  us  now.  If  the  queer  bundle  of  nerves 
that  is  called  man  never  presented  a  greater  irrele¬ 
vancy,  admiration  for  him  need  molt  no  feather.  Both 
of  the  quarrels,  if  so  they  might  be  called,  that  brought 
out  the  fighting  instinct  in  the  gentle  artist-student 
resulted  from  incidents  in  Madrid  when  he  returned 
there  in  1890.  W.  E.  Retana,  who  had  been  press-agent 
in  Manila  for  the  friars,  was  now  a  Madrid  journalist 
and  printed  in  his  newspaper  a  vicious  and  baseless 
attack  upon  Rizal  wherein  he  sought,  doubtless,  to 
revenge  the  friars  on  the  author  of  “Noli  Me  Tan- 
gere.”  Without  delay  Rizal  sent  him  a  challenge. 
Mr.  Retana  seems  to  have  had  no  appetite  to  go  afield ; 
he  published  a  retraction  and  apology  and  the  quarrel 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 


211 


ended.1  Rather  oddly,  Retana,  who  had  been  in 
Manila  the  bitter  foe  of  the  Filipino  cause  and  of  all 
its  champions  (though  possibly  on  a  commercial 
basis),  became,  after  this  incident,  first  the  friend  and 
then  the  biographer  of  Rizal. 

The  other  altercation  was  with  Antonio  Luna,2  after¬ 
ward  a  famous  commander  in  the  army  of  the  Philip¬ 
pine  Republic.  About  a  woman  of  Rizal’s  acquaint¬ 
ance  Luna  made  an  unworthy  remark,  and  Rizal  sent 
him  a  challenge.  Having  possibly  regained  sobriety 
meanwhile,  Luna  withdrew  the  remark  and  apologized 
for  it,  whereupon  the  quarrel  was  made  up  without 
mortal  arbitrament.  In  his  chivalrous  and  unsullied 
attitude  toward  women  Rizal  was  true  to  the  finest 
traditions  of  his  race.  Among  the  faults  of  the  Fil¬ 
ipinos,  lechery  is  assuredly  not  included.  Except  the 
Irish,  no  other  people  on  earth  have  a  higher  concep¬ 
tion  of  chastity  and  sex  morality,  nor  adhere  to  it  with 
greater  tenacity.  Retana  wrote  that  Rizal  had  “a 
truly  upright  moral  sense.’ ’  It  was  but  an  inadequate 
tribute.  He  was  a  champion  of  righteousness;  his 
religion  was  like  Wendell  Phillips’s,  “a  battle  not  a 
dream.”  When  he  wrote,  “The  good  of  my  country, 
that  is  all  I  pursue,”  he  was  not  making  platform  epi¬ 
grams  but  telling  what  the  records  confirm. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  purity  of  his  conduct;  at 
least  as  wonderful  is  the  fact  that  he  left  so  little 

1  Craig,  p.  165.  On  Retana ’s  return  from  the  Philippines  he  became 
connected  with  ‘ 1  La  Politica  de  Espana  en  Filipinas,  ’  ’  an  organ  of  reac¬ 
tion  and  most  furiously  opposed  by  “La  Solidaridad. ’ ’  From  1895  to 
1898  he  was  the  chief  editor  of  this  virulent  sheet,  which  was  undoubt¬ 
edly  maintained  by  the  friars  as  their  mouthpiece  in  the  capital.  Com¬ 
pare  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  LII,  p.  164. 

3  Retana,  p.  195. 


212  THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 

trace  of  a  selfish  aim.  Other  men  with  great  work  to 
do  have  had  all  of  his  indifference  to  wealth;  what 
classifies  him  as  above  all  these  is  his  far  rarer  indif¬ 
ference  to  the  nobler  ambitions  for  fame  and  power 
that  have  beset  so  many  others  in  his  position  and 
wrecked  so  many  good  causes.  He  sought  no  place, 
looked  for  no  honor,  cared  for  applause  as  little  as 
finite  man  could  be  expected  to  care,  seemed  to  have  no 
yearning  for  ease  nor  for  pleasure.  The  lust  of  the 
eyes,  and  that  fatal  lure,  the  joy  of  warming  oneself  in 
the  sun  of  one’s  own  glory  tripped  him  not.  We  may 
admit  that  the  balance  to  be  drawn  from  these  facts  is 
not  wholly  a  human  figure;  one  looks  for  the  faults 
that  have  disfigured  so  many  other  national  heroes 
and  the  things  that  laurel-bearing  biographers  labor 
deftly  to  conceal.  There  seems  to  be  nothing  to  con¬ 
ceal  about  this  man.  And  if  the  tale  of  his  virtues 
seems  at  times  overwrought  so  that  we  might  be 
relieved  to  find  somewhere  that  he  swore,  was  easily 
angered,  or  chewed  tobacco  or  fought  a  cabman,  we 
are  to  remember  that  as  his  ideals  bore  him  to  unusual 
heights,  so  it  was  an  unusual  condition  that  forced 
him  early  in  life  to  surrender  every  purpose  but  the 
emancipation  of  his  country.  And  when  we  have  made 
all  allowances  for  the  power  of  this  ambition  that 
swept  him  along,  the  fact  will  remain  and  be  inevitable 
in  the  records  that  here  was  a  strange  figure  to  walk 
in  upon  us  in  the  nineteenth  century  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth. 

There  remains  to  be  noted  a  singular  fact  about  that 
leadership  of  his  people,  forced  upon  him  as  we  have 
noted,  and  not  of  his  designing  or  plotting.  With  his 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN 


213 


prestige  and  the  popularity  that  was  the  certain  conse¬ 
quence  of  a  success  so  gratifying  to  the  hurt  national 
pride,  he  had  but  to  make  a  gesture  to  his  country¬ 
men  and  they  would  have  followed  him  over  the  smok¬ 
ing  ruins  of  Malacanan  or  any  other  place,  fighting 
with  bolos  if  they  could  come  by  no  rifles.  It  was  a 
temptation  to  dramatics  on  the  world  stage  that  few 
men  could  have  resisted.  What  reality  of  stem  virtue, 
worthier  of  a  legendary  age  than  of  his  own  times,  was 
in  this  man  may  be  gaged  from  the  fact  that  he  not  so 
much  resisted  the  temptation  as  ignored  it.  Perhaps 
to  him  it  was  no  temptation;  at  least  he  may  be 
thought  of  as  living  in  his  inner  and  real  self,  where 
such  things  weighed  nothing.  The  time  demanded 
from  a  revolutionary  leader  a  proclamation  and  loud 
cheers ;  he  met  it  with  a  learned  treatise  on  taxation 
and  how  taxation  might  be  improved.  Bitter  are  the 
penalties  that  attend  a  dark  skin!  But  for  his  com¬ 
plexion  the  world  would  class  him  with  its  purest  and 
best,  with  Washington  and  William  the  Silent,  Phocion 
and  Brutus,  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips,  and  the 
rest  of  the  scanty  band  that,  having  great  tasks  thrust 
upon  them,  forgot  themselves  and  their  tenements  of 
clay  to  think  only  of  the  Common  Good. 

As  to  how  J ose  Rizal  would  stand  such  a  test  applied 
to  his  career  and  all  of  it,  take  this  testimony  of 
Retana,  who  from  antecedent  probability  at  least 
would  invent  no  extravagance  of  praise.  Even  in  his 
youth,  said  Retana,  every  injustice,  every  crime,  every 
wrong,  struck  home  to  his  sensibilities.  He  walked 
with  unsmirched  garments  through  a  world  filled  with 
the  reek  of  a  sordid  time  and  the  cruelty  that  man 


214 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


works  upon  man,  trying  to  make  a  protest  against 
all  oppressions  and  busy  to  the  end  with  the  troubles  of 
his  fellows  but  not  with  his  own. 

To  this  sketch  of  his  moral  self,  not  less  engaging 
than  his  physical  portraiture,  remains  to  be  added  one 
line.  Pursued  indefatigably  by  bigotry  and  preju¬ 
dice,  he  was  himself  of  a  singular  tolerance.  The 
wrongs  of  his  people  he  resented  with  towering  indig¬ 
nation,  and  his  own  he  viewed  with  an  astonishing 
calm.  To  the  gibes  and  sneers  and  taunts  of  his  foes 
he  had  but  the  one  habitual  response : 

“To  understand  all  is  to  forgive  all ! ’ ’ 


CHAPTER  XII 


“el  filibusterismo ' ’ 

FOR  Spanish  or  Filipino  ears,  “filibuster”  has 
nothing  of  the  comic  or  disreputable  suggestion 
that  it  bears  to  the  American.  In  the  Philippines  of 
Rizal’s  day  it  denoted  a  person  opposed  to  the  existing 
regime,  an  insurgent,  whether  advocating  peaceful  or 
violent  means  of  separation  from  Spain.  “El  Fili¬ 
busterismo  ?  ?  means  a  movement  for  Philippine 
independence. 

In  this  novel  again,  the  chief  figure  is  Ibarra,  the 
hero  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere.”  It  was  Elias,  not  Ibarra, 
that  was  struck  with  the  bullets  of  the  Civil  Guards 
when  they  were  pursuing  his  banca;  Ibarra  escaped 
unhurt.  He  made  his  way  out  of  the  country  and  now 
returns  after  some  years,  disguised  and  under  an  as¬ 
sumed  name,  to  seek  the  revenge  upon  which  all  this 
time  his  heart  has  been  brooding.  The  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  Ibarra  that  refused  Elias’  prayer  to  lead 
the  people  and  this  Ibarra  become  now  hopeless  of 
any  peaceful  remedy  betrays  once  more  the  change 
we  have  already  noted  as  coming  over  Rizal’s  most 
cherished  convictions  and  in  spite  of  himself.  A  strug¬ 
gle  was  going  on  between  what  he  still  wished  to  be¬ 
lieve  and  what  his  judgment  told  him  was  inevitable, 
and  in  the  conflict  he  grew  in  hardihood.  From  the 

savage  vengeance  that  pursued  his  sisters,  brothers, 

215 


216 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


father,  and  mother  when  it  had  failed  to  reach  him, 
he  was  beginning  to  learn  how  idle  was  the  hope  to 
win  reform  by  merely  ladylike  appeals.  Yet  the  book 
was  not  of  purpose  any  signal  to  popular  revolt.  What 
he  intended  was  solemn  warning.  So  far  the  Filipino 
has  stood  and  asked  for  justice,  still  patient,  still  hold¬ 
ing  out  the  friendly  hand.  Wronged  hearts  will  not 
always  accept  scurvy  affronts;  men  will  not  always 
put  up  with  kicks  when  they  ask  fair  play.  This  Fili¬ 
pino  whom  you  despise  and  trample  on  nineteen  years 
in  twenty  and  who,  in  the  twentieth,  throws  you  into 
a  panic,  is  not  the  human  dish-cloth  you  are  pleased 
now  to  imagine  him.  He  has  in  him  the  capacity  for 
a  great  and  memorable  revenge,  and  upon  your  heads 
he  will  pull  down  your  structure  if  you  do  not  hear  him. 

Other  characters  of  the  first  book  reappear  in  this. 
Father  Salvi,  the  lascivious  friar  whose  machinations 
brought  about  Ibarra’s  downfall;  Capitan  Tiago, 
Doha  Victorina ,  and  Basilio,  the  son  of  Sisa .  Ibarra 
calls  himself  Mr.  Simoun.  His  pretended  business  is 
that  of  a  traveling  merchant  of  jewelry  and  laces; 
his  real  occupation  is  to  spy  out  the  land,  to  lay  plots 
against  the  governing  class  that  ruined  him,  and,  if 
possible,  to  release  Maria  Clara  from  her  convent 
prison.  The  narrative  is  chiefly  concerned  with  these 
plots  and  their  failure ;  but  behind  them  always  seems 
to  show  a  grim  figure  telling  Government  that  such 
plots  will  not  always  fail. 

The  book  starts  with  a  gibe  at  the  people  with  whose 
tardiness  to  respond  to  progressive  ideas  Rizal  was 
becoming  impatient. 


“EL  FILIBUSTEEISMO ’ ’ 


217 


One  morning  in  December  the  steamer  Tabo  was  laboriously 
ascending  the  tortuous  course  of  the  Pasig,  carrying  a  large 
crowd  of  passengers  toward  the  province  of  La  Laguna.  She 
was  a  heavily  built  steamer,  almost  round,  like  the  taboo  from 
which  she  derived  her  name,  quite  dirty  in  spite  of  her  pre¬ 
tentious  whiteness,  majestic  and  grave  from  her  leisurely 
motion.  Altogether,  she  was  held  in  great  affection  in  that 
region,  perhaps  from  her  Tagalog  name,  or  from  the  fact  that 
she  bore  the  characteristic  impress  of  things  in  the  country, 
representing  something  like  a  triumph  over  progress,  a 
steamer  that  was  not  a  steamer  at  all,  an  organism,  stolid, 
imperfect,  yet  unimpeachable,  which,  when  it  wished  to  pose 
as  being  rankly  progressive,  proudly  contented  itself  with 
putting  on  a  fresh  coat  of  paint.  Indeed,  the  happy  steamer 
was  genuinely  Filipino!  If  a  person  were  only  reasonably 
considerate,  she  might  have  been  taken  for  the  Ship  of  State, 
constructed,  as  she  had  been,  under  the  inspection  of  Reveren- 
dos  and  Ilustnsimos. 

As  before,  Eizal  uses  with  photographic  accuracy 
the  materials  of  Philippine  life  that  had  passed  under 
his  own  observation.  The  wanderings  of  Simoim  the 
jeweler  give  him  the  needed  occasions ;  he  hangs  upon 
them  startling  pictures  of  actual  conditions,  the  power 
of  the  friars,  the  brutality  and  cowardice  of  the  gov¬ 
erning  class,  the  terrible  wrongs  of  the  people;  even 
the  story  of  Maria  Clara’s  parentage  he  had  from  an 
incident  in  his  own  neighborhood.  Poverty,  chastity,1 
and  obedience  were  the  oath  of  the  degenerate  suc¬ 
cessors  to  a  noble  race  of  Christianity’s  pioneers. 

1For  a  collection  of  astounding  facts  bearing  upon  the  disregard  of 
this  part  of  the  oath  reference  may  be  had  to  Foreman,  ‘  ‘  The  Philippine 
Islands,  ’  f  pp.  202-204. 


218 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


How  lightly  they  regarded  the  second  item  in  this 
creed  he  had  shown  in  “Noli  Me  Tangere.”  As  to 
poverty,  their  corporations  had  become  the  wealthiest 
institutions  in  the  Islands.  He  is  now  about  to  show 
how  they  had  obtained  the  wealth  that  made  their 
power  supreme  and  pervasive. 

Tandang  Selo  is  a  native  wood-cutter  that  by  in¬ 
dustry  and  self-denial  has  saved  a  little  money.  He 
has  a  son,  Tales,  industrious  and  thrifty  like  himself. 
Tales  works  for  a  rich  landowner  and  saves  enough 
to  buy  two  carabaos,  to  marry,  and  to  accumulate  a 
capital  of  several  hundred  pesos.  He  has  ambition; 
he  wishes  to  rise  in  the  world.  There  is  the  jungle, 
unclaimed,  untilled,  but  fertile.  With  his  father,  his 
wife,  and  children  he  goes  into  it,  clears  away  the 
forest,  and  makes  tillable  fields. 

To  cut  for  the  first  time  the  jungle  turf  is  supposed 
to  release  a  dangerous  malaria.  Of  this,  Tales’ s  wife 
and  eldest  child  fall  ill  and  die.  The  others  continue 
to  plant  and  to  cultivate. 

As  they  begin  to  harvest  the  first  crop,  an  agent  of 
the  friars  appears,  notifies  them  that  the  land  belongs 
to  one  of  the  orders,  and  levies  on  the  crop  for  the  rent. 

Tales  has  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  claim  is 
fraudulent,  but  he  is  only  an  Indio ;  the  courts  are  or¬ 
ganized  against  him  and  his  people,  and  he  pays  tribute 
rather  than  risk  a  lawsuit. 

The  next  year  the  crops  are  good  and  the  friars 
double  the  rent. 

Nevertheless  the  family  works  hard  and  saves  a 
little  money.  The  desire  of  the  father’s  heart  is  to 
send  his  eldest  daughter,  Jidi,  to  school  in  Manila. 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMO ’ ’ 


219 


Next  year  the  rent  is  again  increased,  and  the  hope  of 
education  begins  to  fail. 

When  the  rent  has  risen  from  thirty  to  two  hum 
dred  pesos,  Tales  refuses  to  pay  the  latest  increase. 
Then  the  friars’  agent  tells  him  to  prepare  to  be 
evicted,  for  another  tenant  will  come  and  till  the  fields 
Tales  has  won  from  the  jungle. 

Tales  applies  to  the  courts  for  relief  and  is  at  once 
despoiled  of  his  savings  to  pay  the  fees;  likewise 
to  satisfy  the  cormorants  that  batten  upon  every  court 
proceeding. 

The  farm  is  exposed  to  the  raids  of  the  tulisanes ,  or 
robbers.  The  invisible  government  has  energy  enough 
to  play  eavesdropper  upon  its  own  people,  but  makes 
scarcely  an  effort  to  restrain  the  banditti  that  hover 
in  all  the  forests  and  often  descend  upon  the  towns, 
even  large  towns. 

To  protect  his  fields  from  these  vultures,  Tales  pa¬ 
trols  them  with  a  shot-gun  and  so  terrifies  the  friars’ 
agents  and  the  new  tenant  that  the  benevolent  intention 
of  turning  him  into  the  road  must  be  abandoned  until 
the  lawsuit  shall  be  decided. 

Under  the  code  his  case  is  unassailable.  Even  by 
their  own  charter  the  friars  cannot  own  land.  The 
judges  know  that  this  is  so,  but  one  of  their  number 
loses  his  place  for  giving  a  decision  in  favor  of  a 
native;  the  rest  have  no  desire  to  share  his  fate  and 
so  to  go  back  to  Spain  humiliated  as  well  as  impover¬ 
ished.  They  advise  Tales  to  surrender  and  pay  what 
is  demanded  of  him.  The  fighting  blood  of  the  Malay 
is  up  within  him:  he  stands  in  his  place  and  demands 
that  the  friars  produce  some  evidence  of  ownership — 


220 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


title-deeds,  documents,  papers,  anything.  None  of 
these  have  the  friars  to  show;  their  claim  here,  as  so 
often  in  such  cases,  rests  upon  the  tradition  of  a 
concession.  Nowhere  else  would  such  a  plea,  unsup¬ 
ported  and  unwitnessed,  be  seriously  considered  in  a 
court  of  justice.  In  the  Philippines  it  outweighs 
everything  else,  and  the  judges  decide  in  favor  of 
the  friars. 

Tales  with  his  gun  continues  to  patrol  his  land.  The 
friars  obtain  a  decree  from  the  governor-general  or¬ 
dering  all  arms  to  be  surrendered,  and  so  they  take 
away  the  shot-gun.  Tales  patrols  his  fields  with  a  bolo , 

The  bolo  is  taken  from  him  on  the  pretext  that  it  is 
too  long  and  therefore  comes  within  the  prohibition 
of  the  decree  about  arms.  Tales  patrols  his  fields 
with  an  ax. 

Then  the  tulisanes  come  and  capture  him  and  hold 
him  for  five  hundred  pesos  ransom. 

To  get  the  money,  Juli  sells  herself  into  slavery  in 
the  neighboring  town.  It  is  not  called  by  that  name, 
her  servitude ;  but  that  is  what  it  amounts  to. 

She  is  engaged  to  a  young  man  whom  she  dearly 
loves.  The  sale  of  herself  is  likely  to  end  her  chance 
of  marriage. 

With  the  money  so  raised,  her  father  is  ransomed. 
He  comes  home  to  find  the  friars  ’  agent  and  the  new 
tenant  walking  over  the  fields  that  with  so  much  labor 
the  Tales  family  has  cleared. 

Tales  steals  a  revolver  and  joins  the  tulisanes .  That 
night  the  friars’  agent  and  the  new  tenant  and  the 
new  tenant’s  wife  are  murdered.1 

1  Chap.  IV  and  X. 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMO” 


221 


The  substance  of  this  story,  as  you  perceive,  is  taken 
from  the  experiences  of  the  tenants  of  Calamba,  among 
them  Rizal’s  own  folk. 

There  is  terrible  irony  in  a  description  of  how  the 
gdvernor-general  governs;  how  he  transacts  business 
and  promotes  the  welfare  of  the  Islands.  He  has  been 
on  a  hunting  expedition  in  which  he  has  shot  nothing 
and  returns  ill  tempered  to  Los  Banos,  where  he  has 
his  bath,  drinks  his  cocoanut  milk,  and  sits  down  to 
a  game  of  cards  with  three  friars.  From  this  reason¬ 
able  occupation  his  chief  secretary  tries  to  divert  his 
attention  to  matters  of  public  business.  This  annoys 
the  governor-general. 

“The  petition  about  sporting  arms,”  suggests  the 
secretary. 

“Forbidden!”  says  the  governor-general  and  goes 
on  playing.  The  secretary  tries  to  intimate  that  this 
is  not  wise.  He  only  arouses  the  wrath  of  the 
executive. 

The  schoolmaster  at  Tiani  has  petitioned  for  a  bet¬ 
ter  location  for  his  school.  The  old  store-room  he  is 
using  has  no  roof :  he  has  bought  with  his  own  funds 
books  and  pictures,  and  he  wishes  them  not  to  be 
ruined. 

“I  ’ve  heard  several  complaints  against  this  school¬ 
master,”  says  his  Excellency.  “I  think  the  best  thing 
would  be  to  suspend  him.” 

‘ ‘  Suspended !  ” 1  says  the  secretary. 

“In  the  future,”  says  the  governor-general,  “all 
that  complain  will  be  suspended.  ’  ’ 

1  As  will  appear  later,  this  was  either  prevision  or  a  knowledge  of 
governor-generals  so  accurate  it  is  almost  phenomenal. 


222 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


The  well  known  fact  is  developed  that  there  are  not 
nearly  enough  school-houses.  Somebody  suggests  that 
the  cockpits  might  be  used  for  schools  when  not  needed 
for  the  more  exalted  purpose  to  which  they  are  dedi¬ 
cated.  Horror  meets  the  proposal  to  interfere,  for  the 
sake  of  mere  education,  with  reasonable  sport  and  with 
the  Government’s  revenue. 

It  is  probably  the  worst  Government  in  the  world. 

At  the  end  of  the  card  game  the  secretary  whispers 
to  his  Excellency  that  that  woman  is  around  again, 
the  daughter  of  Cabesang  Tales,  with  her  petition. 
When  Tales  fled  to  the  tulisanes  the  authorities,  true 
to  form,  arrested  his  aged  father  in  his  stead  and  now 
hold  him  in  prison. 

His  Excellency  looked  at  him  with  an  expression  of  impa¬ 
tience  and  nibbed  his  hand  across  his  broad  forehead. 
“ Carambas!  Can’t  one  be  left  to  eat  one’s  breakfast  in 
peace  ?” 

“This  is  the  third  day  she  has  come.  She ’s  a  poor 
girl - ’  ’ 

The  governor-general  scratched  the  back  of  his  ear  and  said, 

‘  ‘  Oh,  go  along !  Have  the  secretary  make  out  an  order  to  the 
lieutenant  of  the  Civil  Guard  for  the  old  man’s  release. 
They  sha’n’t  say  that  we  ’re  not  clement  and  merciful.” 

He  looked  at  Ben-Zayb.  The  journalist  winked.1 

You  can  see  that  it  is  cartoon-making  with  a  ven¬ 
geance.  The  mirth  is  savage.  It  gives  one  the  shivers. 
This  man  taught  the  methods  of  peace  and  rejected 
every  suggestion  that  reform  could  be  won  by  physical 
violence.  Yet  the  way  he  was  walking  is  clear.  In  ten 

1  Chap.  XI. 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMO” 


223 


years  if  he  had  kept  on  he  would  himself  have  been 
leading  an  insurrection.  It  has  always  been  so ;  in  the 
cloister  the  sweet  gentle  spirit  dreaming  of  oppression 
overcome  by  reason,  and  in  the  streets  rude  weapons 
beating  off  the  shackles. 

As  Simoun  the  jeweler,  Ibarra  brings  dramatic 
vengeance  upon  the  head  of  Father  Salvi.  In  Manila 
is  an  American  prestidigitator  who  is  exhibiting  the 
trick  known  as  the  talking  head.  In  this  instance  the 
head  is  supposed  to  be  that  of  an  ancient  Egyptian. 
In  the  midst  of  gruesome  settings  to  enhance  the 
effect,  it  tells  to  an  audience  in  which  Salvi  is  seated 
the  story  of  Maria  Clara ,  disguised  as  an  event  of  four 
thousand  years  ago.  Salvi ,  conscience-stricken,  falls 
in  a  fit.1 

Simoun' s  purpose  from  the  beginning  has  been  to 
excite  the  people  to  an  uprising  by  which  he  hopes  to 
win  his  revenge  on  friars  and  Government  alike  and  to 
free  Maria  Clara  from  the  nunnery  where  she  has  been 
virtually  a  prisoner  since  Ibarra's  arrest,  as  told  in 
“Noli  Me  Tangere.”  The  actual  situation  in  the 
Islands  is  illuminated  by  picturing  Simovm  as  telling 
some  persons  that  the  insurrection  is  desired  by  the 
governor-general  to  free  himself  from  the  friars,  and 
telling  others  that  the  friars  are  planning  it  to  rid 
themselves  of  the  governor-general.  In  the  chaos 
through  which  the  social  order  was  drifting,  either 
story  was  plausible.  Simoun  in  his  ceaseless  intrigu¬ 
ing  has  manceuvered  within  his  power  Quiroga,  an  in¬ 
fluential  Chinaman,  also  a  type  in  those  days,  who  has 
secret  and  unseemly  dealings  with  the  Government. 

1  Chap.  XVIII. 


224 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Through  this  connection  Simoun  is  able  to  have  his 
rifles  passed  through  the  custom-house  as  some  of 
Quiroga’s  illicit  importations.  He  spreads  his  nets 
and  lays  his  plans,  tutors  his  accomplices,  distributes 
his  arms,  and  when  all  is  ready  for  his  explosion  he 
is  stunned  with  the  news  that  so  far  as  Maria  Clara 
is  concerned  it  is  too  late.  She  is  dead  in  the  convent. 

There  are  two  other  love-stories  in  the  book,  both 
unhappy,  both  reflexes  of  RizaPs  own  great  unhappi¬ 
ness. 

One  is  of  Basilio  and  Juli.  Basilio  is  the  son  of  Sisa, 
the  native  woman  in  4 ‘ Noli  Me  Tangere,”  driven  in¬ 
sane  by  misfortunes  and  persecutions;  Juli  is  the 
daughter  of  Cabescmg  Tales ,  driven  into  brigandage 
by  the  exactions  of  the  friars. 

So  slight  a  thing  as  a  frolic  of  students  brings  Basilio 
and  Juli  to  their  tragedy.  Some  of  the  students  have 
a  supper.  It  is  innocent  and  insignificant,  but  the  spies 
watch  it.  That  night  pasquinades  are  pasted  upon 
the  doors  of  the  university,  pasquinades  that  the  nerv¬ 
ous  authorities  deem  seditious.  To  overwrought 
minds  the  bad  verses  and  cheap  jocularity  of  these 
compositions  indicate  that  the  treason  must  be  con¬ 
nected  with  the  students ’  supper.  Therefore,  arrest 
all  the  students.  The  order  includes  Basilio,  who  had 
not  attended  the  fiesta,  and  whose  rooms  when 
searched  yield  nothing  but  text-books  on  medicine. 

In  the  rural  region  where  Juli  is  living,  terrible 
reports  are  current  as  to  the  fate  of  these  students. 
At  one  moment  they  are  condemned  to  be  shot ;  at  an¬ 
other  the  sentence  has  already  been  carried  out.  Then 
comes  news  that  with  the  help  of  influential  and 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMQ” 


225 


wealthy  relatives  they  hope  to  escape  the  death- 
penalty;  all  except  Basilio,  who  has  no  wealthy  friends 
nor  influence  of  any  kind. 

There  is  in  the  town  where  Juli  lives  a  friar,  Father 
Camorra,  of  great  power  in  the  Government.  An  old 
woman  urges  Juli  to  go  to  the  convent o  1  and  beg  the 
intercession  of  Father  Camorra .  A  word  from  him 
will  be  enough  to  save  Basilio’ s  life,  Juli  knows  well 
enough  what  is  the  real  nature  of  the  sacrifice  de¬ 
manded  of  her;  so  many  a  Filipino  girl  has  walked 
or  been  dragged  along  that  road  to  destruction.  The 
reports  about  the  students  grow  worse*  At  last  it 
appears  that  Basilio  has  been  condemned  to  death  and 
in  twenty-four  hours  will  stand  before  the  firing-squad. 
Not  a  hope  remains  except  through  the  intercession  of 
Father  Camorra .  The  old  woman  beseeches ;  still  Juli 
refuses.  At  last  she  is  forced  to  the  door  of  the 
convento .  That  night  a  woman,  screaming  wildly, 
throws  herself  from  an  upper  window  of  the  house. 
When  help  comes  to  her  she  is  dead.  The  body  is 
recognized  as  that  of  Juli.2 

Basilio  escapes  the  executioner.  When  he  learns 
of  the  fate  of  Juli  he  joins  Simoun,  the  disguised 
Ibarra ,  who  has  tried  in  vain  to  interest  him  in  the 
plans  for  a  revolution. 

The  other  story  concerns  Isagcmi,  type  of  the  edu¬ 
cated  and  ambitious  young  Filipino,  and  Paulita ,  type 
of  the  exquisite  native  beauty.  Isagani  is  deeply  in 
love.  Nevertheless,  he  puts  fidelity  to  his  country 
above  even  the  idol  of  his  heart.  He  is  a  leader  among 

1  Convento :  priest 's  house. 

3  Chap.  XXX. 


226 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


the  discontented  students.  They  do  not  think  of  sedi¬ 
tion  hut  only  of  reforms  peacefully  achieved,  the  Rizal 
idea  of  progress.  An  opportunity  arising,  Isagcmi 
speaks  with  the  greatest  frankness  to  Father  Fernan¬ 
dez,  a  Dominican  friar,  and  one  of  the  instructors  at 
the  university.  Their  conversation  gives  the  author 
a  chance  to  expose  the  defects  in  the  system  of  higher 
education — so  called.  He  does  more  than  expose  it; 
he  blasts  and  withers  it.1  Isagani  never  hesitates  to 
speak  his  opinions  about  these  things,  though  always 
professing  perfect  loyalty.  He  is  arrested  with  the 
other  students  in  the  dog-day  tit  that  has  seized  upon 
the  authorities.  At  the  news  the  relatives  of  Paulita 
insist  that  she  shall  cast  over  a  lover  so  notorious  and 
so  dangerous.  It  is  Rizal  and  Leonora  again.  Paulita 
yields  to  them;  she  allows  herself  to  be  engaged  to 
Isagani’ s  rival  and  the  date  is  fixed  for  her  wedding. 
It  is  the  date  that  Simoun  selects  for  the  consummation 
of  his  plot.  Basilio  agrees  to  help  him. 

Paulita’ s  relatives  are  rich;  they  have  invited  the 
most  eminent  persons  in  the  colony,  including  the 
governor-general  himself.  Simoun,  the  wealthy  jew¬ 
eler,  will  be  there.  He  has  arranged  with  bands  of 
tulisanes  and  certain  discontented  peasants  to  gather 
on  that  date  to  attack  the  city.  An  explosion  like  the 
firing  of  a  cannon  is  to  he  their  signal. 

The  guests  come  bearing  or  sending  beautiful  gifts. 
Simoun  presents  a  lamp  of  strange  and  beautiful  de¬ 
sign — burning.  In  it  is  a  charge  of  dynamite  sufficient 
to  blow  up  the  house  and  all  in  it.  This  will  furnish 
the  signal  for  the  attack.  He  has  told  this  to  Basilio. 

1  Chap.  XXVII. 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMO” 


227 


Outside  the  house  of  festival,  Isagani  lingers,  hoping 
to  catch  one  farewell  glimpse  of  the  sweetheart  he  has 
lost.  Basilio  sees  him  and  tries  to  lead  him  away  be¬ 
fore  the  explosion.  Isagani  refuses  to  move.  In  de¬ 
spair  Basilio  tells  him  what  is  afoot  about  the  lamp. 
Isagani,  overwhelmed  with  horror  at  the  thought  that 
the  woman  he  loves  is  about  to  perish,  runs  into  the 
house,  seizes  the  lighted  lamp,  throws  it  into  the  river, 
and  follows  it  there  before  any  one  has  a  chance  to 
stop  him.1 

Great  excitement  follows,  in  which  something  of  the 
plot  is  revealed;  and  Simoun  is  unmasked,  but  not 
until  he  has  had  a  chance  to  escape.  He  is  pursued 
and  wounded.  He  dies  in  the  house  of  a  Filipino  fam¬ 
ily  where  he  has  found  refuge.  On  his  death-bed  he 
confesses  to  a  priest  his  real  name  and  story.2 

“God  will  forgive  you,  Senor  Simoun,’ ’  says  the 
priest.  “He  knows  that  we  are  fallible.  He  has  seen 
that  you  have  suffered,  and  in  ordaining  that  the  chas¬ 
tisement  of  your  faults  should  come  as  death  from  the 
very  ones  you  have  instigated  to  crime,  we  can  see 
His  infinite  mercy.  He  has  frustrated  your  plans  one 
by  one,  the  best  conceived,  first  by  the  death  of  Maria 
Clara,  then  by  a  lack  of  preparation,  then  in  some 
mysterious  way.  Let  us  bow  to  His  will  and  render 
Him  thanks!” 

“According  to  you,  then,”  feebly  responded  the  sick  man, 
“His  will  is  that  these  Islands - ” 

“Should  continue  in  the  condition  in  which  they  suffer?” 
continued  the  priest,  seeing  that  the  other  hesitated.  “I 

1  Chap.  XXXIII-XXXV. 

2  Chap.  XXXIX. 


228 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


don’t  know,  sir,  I  ean’t  read  the  thought  of  the  Inscrutable. 
I  know  that  he  has  not  abandoned  those  peoples  who  in  their 
supreme  moments  have  trusted  in  Him  and  made  Him  the 
judge  of  their  cause.  I  know  His  arm  has  never  failed  when, 
justice  long  trampled  upon  and  every  recourse  gone,  the  op¬ 
pressed  have  taken  up  the  sword  to  fight  for  home  and  wife 
and  children,  for  their  inalienable  rights,  which,  as  the  Ger¬ 
man  poet  says,  shine  ever  there  above,  unextinguished  and  in¬ 
extinguishable,  like  the  eternal  stars  themselves.  No,  God  is 
justice;  He  cannot  abandon  His  cause,  the  cause  of  liberty, 
without  which  no  justice  is  possible.” 

Nothing  could  be  plainer:  Rizal  is  enforcing  with  a 
final  warning  the  lesson  of  his  book. 

“Why,  then,  has  He  denied  me  His  aid?”  asked  the  sick 
man  in  a  voice  charged  with  bitter  complaint. 

“Because  you  chose  means  that  He  could  not  sanction,” 
was  the  severe  reply.  “The  glory  of  saving  a  country  is  not 
for  him  that  has  contributed  to  its  ruin.  You  have  believed 
that  what  crime  and  iniquity  have  defiled  and  deformed 
another  crime  and  another  iniquity  can  purify  and  redeem. 
Wrong!  Hate  never  produces  anything  but  monsters;  crime 
never  produces  anything  but  criminals.  Love  alone  realizes 
wonderful  works ;  virtue  alone  can  save !  No,  if  our  country 
is  ever  to  be  free  it  will  not  be  through  vice  and  crime ;  it  will 
not  be  so  by  corrupting  its  sons,  deceiving  some  and  bribing 
others;  no!  Redemption  presupposes  virtue,  virtue  sacrifice, 
and  sacrifice  love !  ’  ’ 

“Well,  I  accept  your  explanation,”  rejoined  the  sick  man, 
after  a  pause.  “I  have  been  mistaken,  but,  because  I  have 
been  mistaken,  will  that  God  deny  liberty  to  a  people  and  yet 
save  many  who  are  much  worse  criminals  than  I  am?  What 
is  my  mistake  compared  to  the  crimes  of  our  rulers?  Why 
has  that  God  to  give  more  heed  to  my  iniquity  than  to  the  cries 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMO” 


229 


of  so  many  innocents  ?  Why  has  He  not  stricken  me  down  and 
then  made  the  people  triumph?  Why  does  He  let  so  many 
worthy  and  just  ones  suffer  and  look  complacently  upon  their 
tortures  ? ’ ’ 

“The  just  and  the  worthy  must  suffer  in  order  that  their 
ideas  may  be  known  and  extended!  You  must  shake  or  shat¬ 
ter  the  vase  to  spread  its  perfume ;  you  must  smite  the  rock  to 
get  the  spark !  There  is  something  providential  in  the  perse¬ 
cutions  of  tyrants,  Senor  Simoun!” 

“I  knew  it,”  murmured  the  sick  man,  “and  therefore  I 
encouraged  the  tyranny.” 

“Yes,  my  friend,  but  more  corrupt  influences  than  any¬ 
thing  else  were  spread.  You  fostered  the  social  rottenness 
without  sowing  an  idea.  From  this  fermentation  of  vices 
loathing  alone  could  spring,  and  if  anything  were  born  over¬ 
night  it  would  be  at  best  a  mushroom,  for  mushrooms  only 
can  spring  spontaneously  from  filth.  True  it  is  that  the  vices 
of  the  government  are  fatal  to  it;  they  cause  its  death,  but 
they  kill  also  the  society  in  whose  bosom  they  are  developed. 
An  immoral  government  presupposes  a  demoralized  people,  a 
conscienceless  administration,  greedy  and  servile  citizens  in 
the  settled  parts,  outlaws  and  brigands  in  the  mountains. 
Like  master,  like  slave !  Like  government,  like  country !  ’  ’ 

A  brief  pause  ensued,  broken  at  length  by  the  sick  man’s 
voice.  “Then,  what  can  be  done?” 

“Suffer  and  work!” 

“Suffer — work!”  echoed  the  sick  man  bitterly.  “Ah,  it ’s 
easy  to  say  that,  when  you  are  not  suffering,  when  the 
work  is  rewarded.  If  your  God  demands  such  sacrifices  from 
man,  man  who  can  scarcely  count  upon  the  present  and 
doubts  the  future,  if  you  had  seen  what  I  have,  the  miserable, 
the  wretched,  suffering  unspeakable  tortures  for  crimes  they 
have  not  committed,  murdered  to  cover  up  the  faults  and  inca¬ 
pacity  of  others,  poor  fathers  of  families  torn  from  their 


230 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


homes  to  work  to  no  purpose  upon  highways  that  are  de¬ 
stroyed  each  day  and  seem  only  to  serve  for  sinking  families 
into  want.  Ah,  to  suffer,  to  work,  is  the  will  of  God !  Con¬ 
vince  them  that  their  murder  is  their  salvation,  that  their 
work  is  the  prosperity  of  the  home !  To  suffer,  to  work ! 
What  God  is  that?” 

“A  very  just  God,  Senor  Simoun,”  replied  the  priest.  “A 
God  who  chastises  our  lack  of  faith,  our  vices,  the  little  esteem 
in  which  we  hold  dignity  and  the  civic  virtues.  We  tolerate 
vice,  we  make  ourselves  its  accomplices,  at  times  we  applaud 
it ;  and  it  is  just,  very  just  that  we  suffer  the  consequences, 
that  our  children  suffer  them.  It  is  the  God  of  liberty,  Senor 
Simoun,  who  obliges  us  to  love  it,  by  making  the  yoke  heavy 
for  us — a  God  of  mercy,  of  equity,  who  while  He  chastises  us 
betters  us  and  only  grants  prosperity  to  him  who  has  merited 
it  through  his  efforts.  The  school  of  suffering  tempers,  the 
arena  of  combat  strengthens  the  soul. 

“I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  our  liberty  will  be  secured  at 
the  sword’s  point,  for  the  sword  plays  but  little  part  in  mod¬ 
ern  affairs,  but  that  we  must  secure  it  by  making  ourselves 
worthy  of  it,  by  exalting  the  intelligence  and  the  dignity  of 
the  individual,  by  loving  justice,  right,  and  greatness,  even  to 
the  extent  of  dying  for  them ;  and  when  a  people  reaches  that 
height  God  will  provide  a  weapon,  the  idols  will  be  shattered, 
the  tyranny  will  crumble  like  a  house  of  cards,  and  liberty 
will  shine  out  like  the  first  dawn. 

‘  ‘  Our  ills  we  owe  to  ourselves  alone,  so  let  us  blame  no  one. 
If  Spain  should  see  that  we  were  less  complaisant  with 
tyranny  and  more  disposed  to  struggle  and  suffer  for  our 
rights,  Spain  would  be  the  first  to  grant  us  liberty,  because 
when  the  fruit  of  the  womb  reaches  maturity  woe  unto  the 
mother  who  would  stifle  it !  So,  while  the  Filipino  people  has 
not  sufficient  energy  to  proclaim,  with  head  erect  and  bosom 
bared  its  rights  to  social  life,  and  to  guarantee  it  with  its  sacri- 


“EL  FILIBUSTERISMO” 


231 


fices,  with  its  own  blood ;  while  we  see  our  countrymen  in 
private  life  ashamed  within  themselves,  hear  the  voice  of  con¬ 
science  roar  in  rebellion  and  protest,  yet  in  public  life  keep 
silence  or  even  echo  the  words  of  him  who  abuses  them  in 
order  to  mock  the  abused ;  while  we  see  them  wrap  themselves 
up  in  their  egotism  and  with  a  forced  smile  praise  the  most 
iniquitous  actions,  begging  with  their  eyes  a  portion  of  the 
booty — why  grant  them  liberty?  With  Spain  or  without 
Spain  they  would  always  be  the  same,  and  perhaps  worse! 
Why  independence,  if  the  slaves  of  to-day  will  be  the  tyrants 
of  to-morrow?  And  that  they  will  be  such  is  not  to  be 
doubted,  for  he  who  submits  to  tyranny  loves  it. 

“Senor  Simoun,  when  our  people  is  unprepared,  when  it 
enters  the  fight  through  fraud  and  force,  without  a  clear  un¬ 
derstanding  of  what  it  is  doing,  the  wisest  attempts  will  fail, 
and  better  that  they  do  fail,  since  why  commit  the  wife  to  the 
husband  if  he  does  not  sufficiently  love  her,  if  he  is  not  ready 
to  die  for  her?” 

Padre  Florentino  felt  the  sick  man  catch  and  press  his 
hand ;  so  he  became  silent,  hoping  that  the  other  might  speak, 
but  he  merely  felt  a  stronger  pressure  of  the  hand,  heard  a 
sigh,  and  then  profound  silence  reigned  in  the  room.  Only 
the  sea,  whose  waves  were  rippled  by  the  night  breeze,  as 
though  awaking  from  the  heat  of  the  day,  sent  its  hoarse  roar, 
its  eternal  chant,  as  it  rolled  against  the  jagged  rocks.  The 
moon,  now  free  from  the  sun ’s  rivalry,  peacefully  commanded 
the  sky,  and  the  trees  of  the  forest  bent  down  toward  one 
another,  telling  their  ancient  legends  in  mysterious  murmurs 
borne  on  the  wings  of  the  wind. 

The  sick  man  said  nothing;  so  Padre  Florentino,  deeply 
thoughtful,  murmured:  “Where  are  the  youth  who  will  con¬ 
secrate  their  golden  hours,  their  illusions,  and  their  enthusi¬ 
asm  to  the  welfare  of  their  native  land?  Where  are  the 
youth  who  will  generously  pour  out  their  blood  to  wash  away 


232 


THE  HEEO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


so  much  shame,  so  much  crime,  so  much  abomination?  Pure 
and  spotless  must  the  victim  be  that  the  sacrifice  may  be 
acceptable !  Where  are  you,  youth,  who  will  embody  in  your¬ 
selves  the  vigor  of  life  that  has  left  our  veins,  the  purity  of 
ideas  that  has  been  contaminated  in  our  brains,  the  fire  of 
enthusiasm  that  has  been  quenched  in  our  hearts?  We  await 
you,  0  youth !  Come,  for  we  await  you ! 11 

Feeling  his  eyes  moisten,  he  withdrew  his  hand  from  that 
of  the  sick  man,  arose,  and  went  to  the  window  to  gaze  out 
upon  the  wide  surface  of  the  sea.  He  was  drawn  from  his 
meditation  by  gentle  raps  at  the  door.  It  was  the  servant 
asking  if  he  should  bring  a  light. 

When  the  priest  returned  to  the  sick  man  and  looked  at 
him  in  the  light  of  the  lamp,  motionless,  his  eyes  closed,  the 
hand  that  had  pressed  his  lying  open  and  extended  along  the 
edge  of  the  bed,  he  thought  for  a  moment  that  he  was  sleeping, 
but  noticing  that  he  was  not  breathing  touched  him  gently, 
and  then  realized  that  he  was  dead.  His  body  had  already 
commenced  to  turn  cold.  The  priest  fell  upon  his  knees  and 
prayed. 

So  Ibarra  dies  with  his  revenge  unaccomplished,  and 
the  priest  takes  the  box  in  which  the  dead  man ’s  great 
wealth  is  supposed  to  be  contained  and  without  open¬ 
ing  it  throws  it  into  the  sea. 

Only  an  artist  would  have  thought  of  such  an  ending. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SAFE-CONDUCT 

FAILURE  was  all  he  reaped  at  Madrid  in  his  efforts 
to  win  some  measure  of  justice  for  his  family,  a 
fact  that  hardly  could  have  astonished  him  then  and 
seems  but  normal  now.  In  the  seats  of  authority  was 
no  man  that  loved  justice  so  much  as  he  feared  the  huge 
political  machine  set  up  by  the  friars  and  administered 
(through  particularly  appropriate  selection)  by  the 
ruffian  Weyler.  Early  in  1891,  Rizal  returned  to  Pans, 
where  he  revisited  his  former  friends,  and  so  passed  to 
Ghent.  There  he  settled  himself  to  the  finishing  ot 
<  ‘  ]3i  Filibusterismo  ’  ’  and  worked  without  further  inter¬ 
ruption  until  the  book  was  done  and  on  its  way  to  the 
publisher. 

Powerful  influences  now  seemed  to  draw  him  again 
to  the  East ;  it  is  likely  that  hut  for  his  hook  he  would 
have  gone  thither  direct  from  Madrid  when  he  learned 
how  little  help  he  might  expect  from  the  gross  and 
inert  government.  The  situation  of  his  family  caused 
him  a  harrowing  anxiety.1  It  was  for  his  sake  that 
they  were  subjected  to  the  abominable  persecutions  ot 
the  petty  tyrants  of  the  existing  System.  His  soul 
revolted  at  the  idea  that  they  should  be  thus  tormented 
while  he  was  safely  out  of  the  range  of  his  enemies 
venom.  After  his  consultations  with  the  Fihpmos  m 
Madrid  the  gloomy  outlook  in  the  Philippines  was 

1  Eetana,  pp.  194-195.  He  dwells  with  sympathy  upon  Eizal’s  unselfish 
devotion  to  his  family. 


233 


234 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


more  than  before  a  burden  on  his  thought.  He  must 
have  known  that  this  time,  as  he  had  forecasted  in  his 
writings,  revolt  would  be  more  than  local.  He  could 
hardly  hope  to  be  allowed  to  land  in  the  Islands,  but 
Hong-Kong  was  a  convenient  point  from  which  to 
watch  developments  and  to  put  forth  his  influence; 
and  as  to  his  family  he  began  to  have  a  purpose  that 
if  carried  out  would  take  them  beyond  the  power  of 
Spanish  officers  to  hector  and  to  wound.  In  October, 
1891,  he  sailed  for  Hong-Kong,  where  he  hoped  to 
establish  himself  in  his  profession,  to  gather  his 
family,  and  to  be  ready  to  help  his  countrymen  with 
the  cautionary  wisdom  of  which  he  held  them  to  be 
most  in  need. 

His  hopes  of  professional  success  were  better 
founded  than  he  knew.  Almost  at  once  he  stepped  into 
a  large  practice.  This  is  not  the  usual  experience  of 
new  physicians  in  a  new  field,  but  his  fame  as  an 
oculist  had  gone  before  him.  For  the  first  time  in  his 
life  he  had  unpledged  money  in  his  purse.  He  sent 
to  the  Philippines  for  his  sister  Lucia,  who  happened 
then  not  to  be  in  jail  nor  exiled  nor  pinioned  to  the 
miseries  of  procrastinating  law-courts,  and  in  her  com¬ 
pany  he  tasted  something  of  the  novelty  of  ease.  The 
project  he  had  half  formed  about  the  rescue  of  his 
harassed  relatives  took  him  in  the  following  spring 
to  Borneo.  As  it  seemed  to  him  virtually  certain  that 
his  enemies  would  continue  to  pursue  any  one  known 
to  be  near  or  dear  to  him,  and  there  was  no  career 
for  them  in  Hong-Kong,  he  purposed  to  found  a  new 
homestead  for  them  under  another  flag.  They  were 


THE  SAFE-CONDUCT 


235 


a  numerous  family,  and  inasmuch  as  the  peculiar 
ideas  of  revenge  we  have  found  to  be  current  in  the 
Spanish  colony  made  his  second  cousin  or  his  great¬ 
grandmother  a  quite  feasible  substitute  for  himself  in 
the  way  of  vicarious  atonement,  it  was  necessary  to 
remove  them  all.  In  North  Borneo  the  British 
authorities  offered  him  on  attractive  terms  an  area  of 
fertile  land  adapted  to  his  purposes.  He  went  to  look 
at  it,  found  it  in  all  respects  suitable,  and  resolved  to 
carry  out  his  plan  of  a  Rizal  family  refuge.1 

From  his  happy  country  of  those  days  not  a  soul 
could  depart  without  the  sanction  of  the  Government. 
To  secure  this  for  anybody  connected  with  him  would 
be  hard  enough;  even  for  an  individual  and  a  tem¬ 
porary  absence  like  Lucia’s  it  was  hard.  How  much 
harder  it  would  be  to  rescue  a  whole  tribe,  and  all  so 
hated!  Revenge  was  not  so  to  be  cheated,  nor  the 
account  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  left  unsettled.  If  pass¬ 
ports  were  to  be  had  at  all,  a  personal  explanation  and 
appeal  offered  the  best  chance.  This  he  determined  to 
attempt,  if  he  could  have  some  reasonable  promise  of 
safety,  being  more  inclined  to  go  because  thereby  he 
might  again  see  his  father  and  mother. 

It  was  the  Philippines  in  one  of  the  recurrent  spasms 
of  reform  that  he  must  now  approach — sure  sign  in 
itself  that  a  storm  was  brewing.  A  new  governor- 
general,  one  Eulogio  Despujol,  expert,  as  was  after¬ 
ward  proved,  in  the  unctuous  shaking  of  hands  and 
the  agile  escape  from  promises,  had  arrived  with  much 
eclat  and  promulgated  a  liberal  program.  Rizal  wrote 

1  Craig,  pp.  172-174;  Retana,  pp.  231-233. 


236 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


to  him,  asking  for  permission  and  a  safe-conduct  to 
visit  Manila. 

In  reply  he  received  through  the  Spanish  consul  at 
Hong-Kong  a  passport  and  an  unequivocal  assurance 
of  his  safety  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  So  equipped, 
he  sailed  with  his  sister  Lucia,  June  26,  1892.1 

For  this  he  has  been  much  criticized  on  the  ground 
that  to  return  to  Manila  was  inconsistent  with  his 
former  experiences  there  and  virtual  deportation 
thence.  If  any  one  had  been  furnished  with  convincing 
knowledge  of  the  duplicity  of  the  Philippine  Govern¬ 
ment,  surely  it  was  Rizal.  By  the  same  token,  it  was 
said,  he  knew  well  the  murderous  attitude  of  the  gov¬ 
erning  class  toward  him,  and  to  go  deliberately  to  the 
thrusting  of  his  head  into  those  jaws  was  madness. 
These,  again,  are  but  the  strictures  of  ignorance. 
Rizal  returned  to  the  Philippines  under  a  compelling 
sense  of  duty.  At  whatsoever  cost  to  himself  he  must 
try  to  rescue  his  family  from  the  tireless  pursuit  of 
the  Interests  he  had  offended,  and  the  North  Borneo 
project  was  clearly  the  way  to  achieve  this.  But  it 
was  a  plan  about  which  the  Government  would  be  cer¬ 
tain  to  object.  If  nothing  else  were  handy,  there  was 
always  the  argument  that  it  would  draw  inhabitants  of 
the  Islands  into  an  alien  territory,  and  this  reasoning 
could  be  met  only  by  face  to  face  encounter  with  the 
governor-general. 

But  Rizal  was  never  deceived  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  trap  into  which  he  was  walking.  Weighing  all  the 
chances  he  knew  he  was  not  likely  to  emerge  alive. 
Therefore,  he  prepared  and  left  with  a  friend  two 

1  Craig,  p.  182 ;  Retana,  p.  235. 


THE  SAFE-CONDUCT  237 

documents  1  to  be  made  public  if  his  enemies  should 
succeed  in  killing  him. 

The  first  of  these  was  addressed  “To  the  Filipinos” 
and  constituted  his  farewell  to  the  people  he  had 
served  so  loyally,  and  a  last  confession  of  his  faith. 
Men  still  study  it  for  other  reasons  than  he  imagined. 
It  is  not  only  an  expression  of  his  professed  creed  but 
a  revelation  of  his  soul  and  inmost  thinkings  on  life 
and  death.  He  shows  here  that  in  his  mind  he  had 
made  no  stranger  of  the  great  mystery  but  had  looked 
upon  it  and  without  misgivings.  There  is  no  bravado 
in  his  attitude  toward  it;  he  is  unafraid  because  he 
has  come  to  the  logical  conclusion  that  there  is  nothing 
about  death  to  be  afraid  of.  When  he  shall  go  and 
how  do  not  concern  a  man,  but  only  that  his  death  shall 
mean  something  for  the  general  cause.  In  this  spirit 
he  begins  his  letter :  2 

The  step  I  am  about  to  take  is  undoubtedly  attended  with 
peril,  and  I  need  not  say  to  you  that  I  take  it  after  long 
deliberation.  I  understand  that  nearly  all  my  friends  are 
opposed  to  it;  but  I  know  also  that  hardly  any  one  else  com¬ 
prehends  what  is  in  my  heart.  I  cannot  live  on  and  see  so 
many  persons  suffer  injustice  and  persecution  on  my  account; 
I  cannot  bear  longer  the  fact  that  my  sisters  and  their  fami¬ 
lies  are  treated  like  criminals,  I  prefer  death  and  cheerfully 
relinquish  my  life  to  free  so  many  innocent  persons  from  such 
great  wrong. 

I  am  aware  that  at  present  the  future  of  our  country  pivots 
in  some  degree  around  me,  that  at  my  death  many  of  its  ene¬ 
mies  will  feel  triumph,  and  consequently  many  of  them  are 
now  wishing  for  my  fall.  What  of  it  ? 

1  They  bear  the  same  date,  June  20,  1892.  Retana,  p.  243. 

a  Retana  prints  the  Spanish  original  at  p.  243. 


238 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


I  hold  duties  of  conscience  above  all  else.  I  have  obligations 
to  the  families  that  suffer,  to  my  aged  parents  whose  sighs 
strike  me  to  the  heart.  If  with  my  death  I  can  secure  for 
them  happiness  and  a  peaceful  home  in  their  native  land,  I 
am  ready.  So  far  as  the  country  is  concerned,  I  am  all  my 
parents  have,  but  the  country  has  many,  many  more  sons 
that  can  take  my  place  and  do  my  work  better  than  I. 

Besides,  I  wish  to  show  those  that  deny  us  patriotism  that 
we  know  how  to  die  for  duty  and  principle. 

What  matters  death,  if  one  dies  for  what  one  loves,  for 
native  land  and  those  dear  to  one  ? 

If  I  thought  that  I  were  the  only  resource  of  the  policy  of 
progress  in  the  Philippines,  and  were  I  convinced  that  my 
countrymen  were  about  to  make  use  of  my  services,  perhaps 
I  should  hesitate  about  this  step ;  but  there  are  others  that  can 
take  my  place,  and  take  it  with  advantage.  Furthermore, 
there  are  probably  those  that  hold  that  I  am  not  needed,  and 
this  is  why  I  am  not  utilized,  but  find  myself  reduced  to 
inactivity. 

Always  I  have  loved  our  unhappy  land,  and  I  am  sure  I 
shall  continue  to  love  it  until  my  last  moment,  in  case  men 
prove  unjust  to  me.  Life,  career,  happiness,  I  am  ready  to 
sacrifice  for  it.  Whatever  my  fate,  I  shall  die  blessing  it  and 
longing  for  the  dawn  of  its  redemption. 

The  other  document  was  a  letter  addressed  to  his 
parents,  brothers,  and  sisters.  In  it  he  said : 

The  affection  I  have  ever  professed  for  you  suggests  this 
step,  and  time  alone  can  tell  whether  it  was  wise.  The  wis¬ 
dom  of  acts  is  decided  by  their  results,  but  whether  these  be 
favorable  or  unfavorable,  it  may  always  be  said  that  duty 
urged  me ;  so  if  I  die  in  doing  my  duty  it  will  not  matter. 

I  realize  how  much  suffering  I  have  caused  you ;  still  I  do 
not  regret  what  I  have  done.  Rather,  if  I  had  to  begin  again 


THE  SAFE-CONDUCT 


239 


I  should  follow  the  same  course,  for  it  has  been  only  duty. 
Gladly  I  go  to  expose  myself  to  peril.  Not  as  an  expiation 
for  misdeeds  (in  this  matter  I  believe  myself  guiltless  of  any) 
but  to  complete  my  work  I  offer  myself  an  example  of  the 
doctrine  I  have  preached. 

A  man  ought  to  be  ready  to  die  for  duty  and  his  prin¬ 
ciples. 

I  hold  fast  to  every  idea  I  have  advanced  as  to  the  condition 
and  future  of  our  country.  I  shall  willingly  die  for  it  and 
even  more  willingly  die  to  secure  for  you  justice  and  peace1 

It  was  his  destiny  to  be  betrayed  and  lied  to.  He 
went  forth  with  the  faith  of  the  Government  pledged 
to  his  safety.  No  sooner  had  the  ship  that  bore  him 
from  Hong-Kong  hoisted  her  anchors  than  the 
Spanish  consul  cabled  to  Governor-General  Despujol 
that  the  victim  was  in  the  trap ; 2  whereupon  in  Manila 
an  accusation  was  filed  against  him  of  treason  and 
sacrilege.  It  appeared  that  Rizal’s  forebodings  about 
his  fate  were  not  fanciful ;  he  was  going  into  a  den  of 
wolves.  When  he  and  his  sister  landed  at  Manila,  a 
customs  officer  searched  their  baggage  and  pretended 
to  find  among  Lucia’s  possessions  a  package  of  treason¬ 
able  documents.  The  device  is  as  old  as  tyranny  and 
must  have  suggested  to  La  Fontaine  one  of  his  most 
famous  fables.  Here  is  the  officer  showing  certain 
papers  and  saying  he  found  them  in  this  trunk  or  that 
valise.  Who  is  to  gainsay  him?  The  victim  protests 
that  she  never  saw  the  documents  before.  What  is 
her  statement  worth  against  the  skilled  vociferations 
of  the  officer?  Rizal  was  right.  In  a  country  operated 

1  Dr.  Craig’s  translation,  pp.  176-179. 

a  Craig,  p.  179. 


240 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


as  Spain  operated  the  Philippines  every  man's  life 
was  at  the  mercy  of  any  power  that  was  able  and 
wished  to  take  it.1 

In  this  instance  the  treasonable  stuff  was  found,  of¬ 
ficial  superservice  asserted,  in  certain  pillow-cases 
that  Lucia  had  in  her  trunk.  When  all  was  done,  it 
consisted  of  a  brief  circular  or  tract  entitled  “The 
Poor  Friars/ ’  Among  reasoning  men  and  enlight¬ 
ened  systems  of  society,  treason  is  held  to  be  a  crime 
directed  against  Government;  other  offenses  may  be 
committed  by  individuals  against  individuals,  but  for 
these  the  police  and  the  ordinary  criminal  code  are 
enough.  The  incendiary  document  Lucia  was  alleged 
to  have  brought  in  said  nothing  against  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  This  is  the  fact  that  will  strike  the  modern 
reader  as  strangest  of  all.  How  can  there  be  other 
treason  or  other  sedition  than  against  Government? 
Yet  in  all  this  document  is  not  a  word  against  anybody 
or  thing  except  the  friars  and  even  as  to  the  friars 
speaks  of  but  one  order,  and  that  in  terms  adults  might 
smile  at  but  assuredly  would  never  care  to  reread. 
Lest  it  should  be  thought  that  any  part  of  the  descrip¬ 
tion  of  the  Insular  Government  attempted  in  these 
pages  is  extravagant,  here  is  the  whole  of  this 
ferocious  document: 

POOR  FRIARS 

A  bank  has  just  suspended  payment ;  the  New  Oriental  has 
just  become  bankrupt. 

Great  losses  in  India.  In  the  Island  of  Mauritius,  to  the 
South  of  Africa  [sic],  cyclones  and  tempests  have  laid  waste 

1  Craig,  p.  182. 


iiH 

B 


n 


-  tPyuxt,~tYxCo  &£ 

Vxx^xrrvAo  y  ft&yx  i4?y,  « 


** 


*1 


44&*-  CiA-eya*?  Cun-rip 


•Z  Tim i  -  iFz&iiLcX^r+T'  &**■  TYtUA 


ctyax^Ac  y 

5  ««~.  S3 t^xtUxJA-  C&vAfcnx^ZYxlx*^  Xt-a  EesyutM*..,  &-  isry-44-4 
d  «*»  etc.  3a-  ciy/AC. *PttAZAM 

$  "L«.  tdtZi^o  y  CyaJUxAc^-xn- *,  «/*.  lyltrrPrtaet. 


■? 

vt°J 


XXX 


£rn ^Suts e*T^ *  *  * 

J&2*tia.: 

ft _ texrtxxtA  &pv  fisr*!L-c£tca~  CaZxry  PCrue).  4-C,  Cte****-  ‘^ImtK&mufC^ 

,— 

*<?  ^,„,  CxAgLa  C  C*>x4  Jnx^r-A,  ct*~  li-t-t-  . . 

(t£A*  ,~m7  #)we*M4i7. 

,?L.  [1 C£ c^U;L  A  9Pt*>  Ctxe*  Ctrx*4-o  UCPxX  sl.&. 

Ctry-iiyv-oy  t  IhA.  etc-  fyo 

m.  ...■  Zi  P S  /Pm.OxaY'a  A&P-lZ  y  4jl 

^7  33P0P  y  Gp  Jk. 

5  — .  C-P /yvtcuASA*-  4sidy*-  3tr>  ftp 

6  *_«_  d^eSxc.  P)  rny^iAmmLt^A^ . 

7  mm.  Cci-t>Lx-,  (7P y  Cp.  CtYeyA&L  Xxn  'PLxryxxJry-c.  cdA^ZxjCuxXA  cJZP. 

etc.  Pa-  to  c  (x3*.  1 1 a.A  yXP  ft&CtLe-yx^, 

2)t£ei£$ 

$5e-l<n  Jt. 

f  _ 3PxAA'r~A  Zx-  C-tx-irhx—  4xy\jCx^4^xJt  etc.  dvgpt_  C^x^MiAxx.  <?,  mii»H 

2.  -—  Pt^dxLXJl-r'A  C-i-Cya^  y  yZ-c-^lAAAfxxi-CH^AAS  tActa-  etc#* pLxrxt-cx-ay%. 
*^.-t...  C^elAotxxt4-.  JU.  ■  Pt'tX-  Z  o  C\ 


r 


3  ■  -  Pa A^Avt-cp  a-t~a  *2  cPM-  ■/ 1*-  (3  C^c*.  (xt.iA-0  Pv-st'C*-  14-  tr-iypx.  yx-4Jt— 

tptx^cx-  icXxXxAe-f,^  CiPPi  ta-JjF. 

2  — «.  Sx-UXX^XX Y{X-  C-P AJt<A.ACv~/l^p\. clyl  CX-tc-^PtACcT AxtP>C-  PtXsl 

cte-cxxxstryx*'}  ctcp  C 

3  _ _  fZt-  /tZ~zP<ry  P-tn  (XeAAry  ett-  ia~.  /lnu)Lx.  &rrxCXuPt-4rex-  Hx  yaA.  t ^X,4t4A  - 

C4x*~  a-ixT)  0'tZv~>  *A$  /H-t?  C^rypydf'zxv'A.-  €-44-^0  &£<  Pa,  PL~c.4-c.Ycx~~ 


THE  OUTLINE  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  “  LIGA  FILIPINA^ 

Photograph  of  the  original.  Note  the  erasures  and  the  abbreviations  intended  to 
be  used  instead  of  the  real  names  in  Rizal’s  handwriting. 


THE  SAFE-CONDUCT 


241 


its  riches,  swallowing  more  than  36,000,000  pesos.  These 
36,000,000  represented  the  hopes,  the  savings,  the  well-being, 
and  the  future  of  numerous  individuals  and  families. 

Among  those  that  have  suffered  most  we  are  able  to  men¬ 
tion  the  Reverend  Corporation  of  the  Dominicans,  which 
lost  in  this  catastrophe  many  hundreds  of  thousands.  The 
exact  amount  is  not  known  because  they  handle  so  much 
money  and  have  so  many  accounts  that  it  would  be  necessary 
to  employ  many  accountants  to  calculate  the  immense  sums 
in  transit. 

But,  neither  should  the  friends  of  these  sainted  monks  that 
hide  behind  the  cloak  of  poverty  be  downhearted  nor  should 
their  enemies  feel  triumphant. 

To  one  and  all  we  can  say  that  they  can  be  tranquil.  The 
Corporation  still  has  many  millions  on  deposit  in  the  banks  of 
Hong-Kong,  and  even  if  all  of  those  should  fail,  and  even  if 
all  of  their  many  thousands  of  rented  houses  should  be  de¬ 
stroyed,  still  there  would  be  left  the  curates  and  the  haciendas, 
there  would  still  remain  the  Filipinos  always  ready  to  answer 
their  call  for  alms.  What  are  four  or  five  hundred  thousands  ? 
Why  take  the  trouble  to  run  about  the  towns  and  ask  alms  to 
replace  these  losses?  A  year  ago,  through  the  bad  business 
administration  of  the  cardinals,  the  Pope  lost  14,000,000  pesos 
of  the  money  of  St.  Peter;  the  Pope,  in  order  to  cover  this 
deficit,  called  Upon  us  and  we  took  from  our  “tampipis”  the 
very  last  cent,  because  we  knew  that  the  Pope  has  many 
worries ;  about  five  years  ago  he  married  off  his  niece  bestow¬ 
ing  upon  her  a  palace  and  300,000  francs  besides.  Therefore, 
generous  Filipinos,  make  a  brave  effort  and  likewise  help  the 
Dominicans. 

However,  these  hundreds  of  thousands  lost  are  not  theirs, 
they  claim.  How  can  they  have  this  when  they  take  a  vow 
of  poverty?  They  are  to  be  believed  then,  when,  to  protect 
themselves,  they  say  this  money  belongs  to  widows  and  or- 


242 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


phans.  Very  likely  some  of  it  belongs  to  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  Calamba,  and  who  knows  if  not  to  their  murdered 
husbands  ?  And  the  virtuous  priests  handle  this  money  solely 
as  depositories  to  return  it  to  them  afterward  righteously  with 
all  interest  when  the  day  to  render  accounts  arrives!  Who 
knows?  Who  better  than  they  can  take  charge  of  collecting 
the  few  household  goods  while  the  houses  burn,  the  orphans 
and  widows  flee  without  meeting  hospitality,  since  others  are 
prohibited  from  offering  them  shelter,  while  the  men  are  made 
prisoners  and  prosecuted?  Who  has  more  bravery,  more 
audacity,  and  more  love  for  humanity  than  the  Dominicans? 

But  now  the  devil  has  carried  off  the  money  of  the  widows 
and  the  orphans,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  he  will  carry  away 
everything,  because  when  the  devil  begins  the  devil  has  to 
finish.  Does  not  that  money  set  up  a  bad  precedent? 

If  things  are  thus,  we  should  recommend  to  the  Dominicans 
that  they  should  exclaim  as  Job:  “Naked  I  came  from  the 
womb  of  my  mother  (Spain),  and  naked  will  I  return  to  her; 
the  devil  gave,  the  devil  took  away;  blessed  be  the  name  of 
the  Lord”! 

Fr[aile]  Jacinto. 

Manila :  Press  of  the  Friends  of  the  Country.1 

Government  in  the  Philippines  had  sunk  so  low  that 
this  could  be  deemed  seditious. 

Nevertheless,  for  some  days  thereafter  the  trap  was 
not  sprung  upon  the  victims.  Rizal  with  his  sister 
went  about  the  city,  visiting  old  friends.  More  than 
once  he  called  upon  Governor-General  Despujol  and 
was  rather  astonished  to  find  that  his  footing  seemed 
to  be  secure  upon  the  dark  and  slippery  precincts  of 

1  The  Economic  Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country  was  established  by 
Governor-General  Basco  in  1780.  It  was  about  as  radical,  revolutionary, 
and  dangerous  as  Despujol  himself. 


THE  SAFE-CONDUCT 


243 


Malacanan.  In  his  usual  frank  way  he  discussed  with 
the  governor-general  the  brand-new  program  of  re¬ 
forms,  commending  most  of  their  features  and  hoping 
for  the  best,  as  was  likewise  his  habit.  Despujol,  re¬ 
sponding  to  all  this,  seemed  equally  ingenuous.  No 
one  would  have  suspected  that  while  he  stressed  so 
much  gracious  hospitality  he  was  but  waiting  for  the 
most  convenient  season  to  strike  to  death  the  man 
before  him.  Rizal  pleaded  in  behalf  of  his  persecuted 
relatives.  Despujol  promised  immunity  for  the 
father,  but  not  for  the  brother  or  sisters.  Afterward 
he  was  willing  to  concede  even  these  favors.  They  dis¬ 
cussed  Rizal’s  project  of  a  settlement  in  North  Borneo, 
and  the  governor-general  applied  his  veto.  For  this 
he  gave  the  expected  reasons  but  never  once  the  real 
one.  He  objected  to  taking  people  out  of  the  colony 
but  said  nothing  about  the  wrath  of  the  friars  if  he 
should  let  their  victims  escape  unhurt. 

Rizal  had  long  known  well  enough  that  the  lack  of 
unity  among  the  Filipinos  was  chief  reason  why  they 
were  enslaved  and  to  keep  up  this  condition  chief 
point  in  Spanish  policy.  ‘ ‘Divide  and  rule” — the  good 
old  formula  of  the  exploiter  in  all  ages.  To  combat 
this  he  proposed  an  organization  that  would  bring 
together  the  most  promising  elements  among  his 
people;  a  plan  for  it  he  had  with  him  when  he  landed. 
It  included  the  full  working  constitution  of  a  society 
to  be  called  La  Liga  Filipina,  or  Philippine  League, 
of  which  the  objects  were  declared  to  be  to  better 
economic  conditions,  to  spread  education,  to  advance 
the  Philippine  youth,  and  to  defend  by  legal  means 


244 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


persons  oppressed,  wronged,  or  unjustly  accused.  He 
now  called  together  his  friends,1  explained  the  pur¬ 
poses  of  the  league,  and  began  to  enroll  members. 

The  real  nature  and  front-parlor  origin  of  this  as¬ 
sociation  2  were  of  a  nature  to  occasion  in  these  days 
only  a  mild  surprise  that  anybody  could  object  to  it, 
as  may  be  observed  from  the  following  precepts  Rizal 
prepared  for  his  fellow-members: 


Don ’t 
Don’t 
Don’t 
Don ’t 
Don’t 
Don’t 
Don’t 
Don’t 
Don’t 
Don’t 
Don ’t 
Don’t 
ability. 


gamble. 

be  a  drunkard. 

break  the  laws. 

be  cruel  in  any  way. 

be  a  rabid  partisan. 

be  merely  a  fault-finding  critic. 

put  yourself  in  the  way  of  humiliation. 

treat  any  one  with  haughtiness  or  contempt. 

condemn  any  man  without  first  hearing  his  side. 

abandon  the  poor  man  that  has  right  on  his  side. 

forget  those  that  although  worthy  have  come  to  want. 

fail  those  without  means  that  show  application  and 


1  It  appears  that  the  first  members  he  enrolled  were  friends  of  his  in 
the  masonic  lodge,  which  probably  gave  rise  to  the  story  that  La  Liga 
Filipina  was  a  masonic  organization.  Rizal  had  been  warmly  welcomed 
by  his  brother  masons  at  Manila  and  was  pleasantly  astonished  to  find 
the  lodge  so  large  and  flourishing. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Liga  declared  these  to  be  its  Ends: 

1.  To  unite  the  whole  archipelago  into  one  compact,  vigorous,  and 
homogeneous  body. 

2.  Mutual  protection  in  every  want  and  necessity, 

3.  Defense  against  all  violence  and  injustice. 

4.  Encouragement  of  industry,  agriculture,  and  commerce, 

5.  The  study  and  application  of  reforms. 

The  motto  was  “Unus  instar  omnium. **  (One  like  all.) 

*  The  idea  of  such  a  society  originated  with  J ose  Maria  Basa,  ono  of 
the  remarkable  Filipinos  then  refugees  in  Hong-Kong.  He  mentioned  it 
to  Rizal  and  suggested  a  constitution,  which  Rizal,  with  his  trained 
intellect,  quickly  formulated. 


THE  SAFE-CONDUCT 


245 


Don’t  associate  with  immoral  persons  or  with  persons  of 

bad  habits.  _ 

Don’t  overlook  the  value  to  your  country  of  new  machine  y 

and  industries.  .,  , 

Don’t  cease  at  any  time  to  work  for  the  prosperi  y 

welfare  of  our  native  land. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


BOUT  this  was  nothing  sinister,  illegal,  revolu- 


tionary,  affrighting,  or  incendiary,  but  the 
Spanish  colony  chose  to  view  it  with  alarm.  If  Rizal 
had  organized  a  prayer  meeting  or  a  branch  of  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  these  nervous  folk 
would  have  seen  in  it  only  treason,  stratagems,  and 
spoils.  On  the  Filipinos  the  effect  was  different.  To 
the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  intelligentsia  the  plan 
of  the  league  appealed  as  the  first  practical  suggestion 
of  relief  through  peaceful  agitation.  With  a  novel  sen¬ 
sation  of  hope,  they  took  it  to  their  bosoms.1  Rapidly 
the  membership  increased ;  at  last  there  was  a  promise 
of  union  and  directed  effort.  And  then  the  powers 
that  stood  behind  the  puppet  governor-general  and 
manipulated  his  movements  decided  that  the  ripe  time 
had  come  to  spring  the  trap;  before  this  dangerous 
man  should  have  back  of  him  an  organization  able  to 
realize  his  dreams  he  must  be  put  to  silence.  Despujol 
sent  for  Rizal,  leaped  upon  him  as  if  from  a  machine 
with  the  leaflet,  “The  Poor  Friars,”  that  men  said 
had  been  found  in  Lucia’s  baggage,  and  without  trial 
or  hearing  ordered  him  to  prison.  From  the  spot 
where  he  stood  in  the  governor-general’s  office  a  guard 

1  Retana,  pp.  252-253,  says  it  had  spread  into  the  provinces  before  the 
Spanish  Government  was  well  aware  of  what  was  going  on. 


246 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


247 


took  him  to  Fort  Santiago  and  thrust  him  into  a  cell. 
Another  generation  will  not  believe  that  this  was  done ; 
and  even  in  our  own  era,  in  which  invasions  of  per¬ 
sonal  rights  at  times  of  great  public  excitement  are 
not  unknown,  an  act  of  such  rank  and  impudent  des¬ 
potism  seems  improbable.  There  was  not  even  a 
pretense  of  any  legal  proceeding,  no  warrant,  no  mag¬ 
istrate,  no  commitment.  “Take  this  man  to  jail!” 
commands  the  governor-general.  With  an  obedient 
start  the  guard  sweeps  away  the  prisoner,  helpless  in  a 
square  of  rifles.  It  is  enough  to  cause  us  to  wonder 
if  democracy  and  liberty  are  or  can  be  more  than 
veneer  upon  any  old  frame  of  European  monarchy  and 
whether  time,  in  this  conception  of  human  society, 
must  not  necessarily  stand  stock-still. 

At  Santiago  guard  was  mounted  1  upon  the  mild  re¬ 
former  and  man  of  peace  as  if  he  had  been  some  fero¬ 
cious  bandit  captured  red-handed  and  likely  to  burst 
his  bars.  Sentinels  stood  day  and  night  over  his  cell 
door;  no  communication  was  allowed  with  his  friends; 
and  grown  men  in  the  official  service  went  through 
the  theatrics  of  pretending  that  there  was  danger  of 
an  attempt  to  rescue  him. 

The  next  day  a  decree  was  issued  ordering  his  exile 
to  Dapitan,  a  town  on  the  northeastern  coast  of  the 
island  of  Mindanao.  Upon  what  charge!  The  charge 
of  sacrilege  and  sedition  made  against  him  the  day 
he  sailed  from  Hong-Kong,  reinforced  with  Lucia’s 
damnable  pillow-cases.  On  these  he  had  been  ad¬ 
judged  guilty  offhand,  as  one  would  drown  cats  or 
blind  puppies.  He  was  not  even  allowed  to  know  who 

1 1  ‘  R'izal ’s  Own  Story,  ’  ’  p.  53. 


248 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


were  his  accusers;  for  that  matter,  he  did  not  even 
know  that  he  was  accused.  “This  fellow  has  com¬ 
mitted  sacrilege  and  sedition/  ’  says  some  one  in  the 
ear  of  the  governor-general.  “Exile  him,”  replies  the 
governor-general,  and  signs  the  order  committing  him 
to  a  living  death.  It  is  like  the  scene  between  the 
governor-general  and  his  secretary  in  “El  Filibuster- 
ismo”;  if  a  man  may  have  foreknowledge  of  his  fate, 
Rizal  had  glimpsed  this  in  his  novel. 

There  was  the  matter  of  the  safe-conduct,  the  prom¬ 
ise  of  protection,  given  by  this  same  governor-general, 
under  which  Rizal  bad  left  Hong-Kong.  It  seems  to 
have  been  not  a  feather-weight  against  the  Interests 
that  cried  for  his  blood.  There  need  be  no  mystery 
as  to  the  source  of  these  perfidies.  Exile  was  the  price 
Rizal  paid  for  writing  “Noli  Me  Tangere”;  the 
powers  that  now  pushed  him  upon  the  savage  coast 
of  Mindanao  as  an  outcast  sent  there  to  die  was  the 
power  of  the  friars,  enraged  by  these  pictures  of  them¬ 
selves.  They  demanded  Rizal ’s  blood;  Hespujol 
seems  to  have  been  incapable  of  the  firing-squad  and 
only  wicked  enough  to  consent  to  exile. 

A  chorus  of  protest  rose  from  the  civilized  world  as 
soon  as  men  learned  of  this  latest  assault  by  a  stupidly 
malignant  Government  upon  the  foundation  principles 
of  modern  liberty.  In  hugger-mugger  Rizal  might  be 
snatched  away  to  banishment,  but  the  time  had  gone 
by  when  such  things  could  continue  to  be  hid.  It  was 
speedily  known  throughout  Europe  that  he  had  been 
decoyed  from  Hong-Kong  by  promises  now  shown  to 
have  been  deliberate  inventions;  that  the  governor- 
general  had  violated  his  own  safe-conduct;  that,  even 


THE  EXILE  ’  OF  DAPITAN 


249 


if  Lucia  had  possessed  a  seditious  document,  proceed¬ 
ings  should  have  lain  against  her  and  not  against  Rizal ; 
that  in  any  society  above  that  of  the  jungle  he  would 
have  had  a  hearing  or  some  form  of  trial.  Some  such 
storm  of  resentment  seems  to  have  been  foreseen  by 
Despujol,  For  the  issue  of  the  “Official  Gazette’ ’  that 
announced  Rizal ’s  banishment  he  had  prepared  a  long 
article  defending  the  Government’s  course  and  de¬ 
scribing  Rizal  as  a  dangerous  person.  But  he  suf¬ 
ficiently  betrayed  himself  by  writing  to  the  governor 
of  Santiago  prison  a  personal  letter  instructing  him 
to  take  every  precaution  that  Rizal  should  not  see  this 
number  of  the  “Gazette,”  and  beyond  this  in  cow¬ 
ardice  and  infamy  it  seemed  hardly  possible  to  go.1 

For  three  days  the  victim  of  the  aroused  wrath  of 
the  governing  class  lay  in  prison,  being  still  denied  any 
communication  with  friend  or  relative.  Then  at  night 
he  was  hustled  aboard  a  steamer  and  started  for 
Dapitan. 

So  far  as  we  can  determine  now,  even  in  these  con¬ 
ditions  he  lost  nothing  of  that  serenity  that  has  made 
him  so  admirable  to  some  investigators  and  so  inex¬ 
plicable  to  others.  “Sustained  and  soothed  by  an  un¬ 
faltering  trust”  seems  to  have  been  literally  the  state 
of  this  brown  man  from  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Many 
a  white  man  far  less  tried  might  have  envied  his  self- 
possession.  Dwell  with  some  patience  and  care,  if 
you  will,  upon  this  his  own  record  of  his  arrest  and 
deportation  and  see  if  you  do  not  deem  this  remark¬ 
able  that  in  such  conditions  not  a  complaint,  not  a  sug- 

1  Craig,  p.  190 ;  Derbyshire,  p.  xxxvii.  Mr.  Derbyshire  calls  the  decree 
of  banishment  “a  marvel  of  sophistry.”  Retana’s  version,  pp.  254-255, 
justifies  this  verdict. 


250 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


gestion  of  resentment  or  of  bitterness,  not  a  hint  of 
fear  occurs  in  his  narrative.  It  is  a  plain,  blunt  story 
written  only  for  his  friends.  Here  if  anywhere  he 
would  have  exhibited  wrath ;  and  the  story  reads  with 
a  kind  of  chill,  so  perfect  is  the  unconcern.  You  can 
hardly  say  it  reads  as  if  it  were  written  about  the 
sufferings  of  somebody  else.  For  anybody  else  in  the 
like  conditions  this  man  would  have  made  protest. 
Concerning  himself  he  had  nothing  to  say  except  to 
record  the  facts.  Here  is  what  his  memorandum  says 
of  all  this : 

Wednesday  he  [the  governor-general]  asked  me  if  I  per¬ 
sisted  in  my  intention  of  returning  to  Hong-Kong.  I  told 
him  “yes. ”  After  some  conversation  he  said  that  I  had 
brought  political  circulars  in  my  baggage.  I  replied  that  I 
had  not.  He  asked  me  who  was  the  owner  of  the  roll  of  pil¬ 
lows  and  petates  1  with  my  baggage.  I  said  that  they  belonged 
to  my  sister.  He  told  me  that  because  of  them  he  was  going 
to  send  me  to  Fort  Santiago.  Don  Ramon  Despujol,  his 
nephew  and  aide,  took  me  in  one  of  the  palace  carriages.  At 
Fort  Santiago,  Don  Enrique  Yillamor,  the  commander,  re¬ 
ceived  me.  The  room  assigned  to  me  was  an  ordinary  cham¬ 
ber.  It  had  a  bed,  a  dozen  chairs,  a  table,  a  wash-stand,  and 
a  mirror.  There  were  three  windows.  One,  without  bars, 
looked  out  on  a  court ;  another  had  bars,  and  overlooked  the 
wall  and  beach ;  the  third  served  also  as  a  door  and  had  a 
padlock.  Two  artillerymen  were  on  guard  as  sentinels.  These 
had  orders  to  fire  on  any  one  that  tried  to  make  signs  from  the 
beach.  I  could  neither  write  nor  converse  with  the  officer  of 
the  guard. 

Don  Enrique  Villamor,  the  commander  of  the  fort,  gave  me 
books  from  the  library. 

1  Petates:  bed-mats.  Mattresses  were  little  used  in  the  Philippines. 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


251 


Each  day  the  corporal  of  the  guard  proved  to  be  a  ser¬ 
geant.  They  cleaned  the  room  every  morning.  For  breakfast, 
I  had  coffee  with  milk,  a  roll,  and  coffee-cake.  Luncheon  at 
12  :  30  was  of  four  courses.  Dinner  was  at  8  :  30  and  similar  to 
the  luncheon.  Commander  Villamor’s  orderly  waited  on  me. 

On  Thursday,  the  14th,  about  5:30  or  6  p.m.,  the  nephew 
notified  me  that  at  10  that  night  I  should  sail  for  Dapitan. 
I  prepared  my  baggage,  and  at  10  was  ready,  but  as  no  one 
came  to  get  me,  I  went  to  sleep. 

At  12  :15,  the  aide  arrived  with  the  same  carriage  that  had 
brought  me  there.  By  way  of  Santa  Lucia  Gate,  they  took 
me  to  the  Malecon,  where  there  were  General  Ahumada  and 
some  other  people.  Another  aide  and  two  of  the  Guardia 
Yeterana  were  awaiting  me  in  a  boat. 

The  Cebu  sailed  in  the  morning  at  9.  They  gave  me  a  good 
state-room,  on  the  upper  deck.  Above  the  doors  could  be 
read,  “Chief.”  Next  my  cabin  was  that  of  Captain  Delgras, 
who  had  charge  of  the  party. 

Ten  soldiers  from  each  branch  of  the  military  serv¬ 
ice  comprised  the  expedition.  There  were  artillery, 
infantry  of  five  regiments,  carbineers,  cavalry,  and  en¬ 
gineers,  and  the  Civil  Guard. 

We  were  carrying  prisoners,  loaded  with  chains,  among 
whom  were  a  sergeant  and  a  corporal,  both  Europeans.  The 
former  was  to  be  shot  for  having  ordered  the  tying  up  of  his 
superior  officer  who  had  misbehaved  while  in  Mindanao.  The 
officer,  for  having  let  himself  be  tied,  was  dismissed  from  the 
service.  The  soldiers  who  obeyed  orders,  were  sentenced  to 
twenty  years’  imprisonment. 

It  appears  that  the  misbehavior  noted  here  by  Rizal 
consisted  of  the  seduction  of  the  sergeant’s  wife  by 


252 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


the  officer,  and  the  tying  up  of  the  officer  was  the 
sergeant’s  revenge.  It  is  an  interesting  side-light  on 
the  prevailing  code  that  the  officer  was  dismissed  from 
the  service  for  allowing  himself  to  be  tied  but  not  for 
dishonoring  the  poor  sergeant,  whose  recompense  was 
to  be  shot.  The  privates  were  to  be  punished  for  lay¬ 
ing  hands  upon  an  officer,  although  they  were  but  obey¬ 
ing  orders.1 

I  ate  in  my  state-room,  the  food  being  the  same  as  the  offi¬ 
cers  had.  I  always  had  a  sentinel  and  a  corporal  on  guard. 
Every  night  Captain  Delgras  took  me  for  a  promenade  till  9 
o’clock.  We  passed  along  the  east  coast  of  Mindanao  and  the 
west  coast  of  Panay.  We  came  to  Dapitan  gn  Sunday  at  7  in 
the  evening. 

Captain  Delgras  and  three  artillerymen  accompanied  me  in 
a  boat  rowed  by  eight  sailors.  There  was  a  heavy  sea. 

The  beach  seemed  very  gloomy.  We  were  in  the  dark,  ex¬ 
cept  for  our  lantern,  which  showed  a  roadway  grown  with 
weeds. 

In  the  town  we  met  the  governor  or  commandant,  Captain 
Ricardo  Carnicero.  There  was  also  a  Spanish  exile,  and  the 
pr act icant e, 2  Don  Cosme.  We  went  to  the  town  hall,  which 
was  a  large  building'. 

That  is  all  there  is  of  this  laconic  narrative.  Under 
the  conditions  it  can  hardly  be  equaled  for  philosoph¬ 
ical  phlegm.  “The  beach  seemed  very  gloomy”;  “As 
no  one  came  to  get  me,  I  went  to  sleep.”  It  sounds 
like  casual  notes  on  a  holiday  jaunt.  In  point  of  fact, 
he  was  in  danger  at  all  times  of  assassination  and  knew 
it  well.  He  must  have  rather  wondered  at  his  fortune 

1  Onee  more,  justice  d  la  espagnoU  in  the  Philippines.  Dr.  Craig 
has  the  full  story. 

2  Practicante:  practitioner  in  surgery  and  medicine. 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


253 


when  he  saw  the  beach  at  Dapitan  and  realized  that 
he  had  arrived  without  being  murdered.1 

It  was  a  little  town  on  the  border  of  a  savage  coun¬ 
try,  known  to  be  unhealthful,  and  at  that  time  so  dif¬ 
ficult  of  access  from  Manila  that  he  might  have  been 
nearer  at  Yokohama,  It  is  charitable  but  hardly 
necessary  to  believe  that  the  men  that  consigned  him 
to  such  a  place  were  unaware  of  its  repute.  With  so 
little  concealment  they  had  sought  in  other  ways  for 
his  life,  we  have  no  reason  to  think  now  of  a  sudden 
they  had  acquired  mercy.  To  a  thousand  places  more 
salubrious  he  might  as  easily  have. been  sent;  none 
would  satisfy  them  but  this. 

At  Dapitan  were  a  military  station,4  a  convent o,  and 
several  priests.  Rizal  was  informed  that  if  he  would 
make  a  declaration  of  sympathy  and  admiration  for 
Spain  he  could  reside  at  the  convento  with  the  priests. 
Even  for  that  privilege,  dear  to  an  intellectual  man, 
hungry  for  the  company  of  his  educated  fellows,  he 
would  not  lay  perjury  on  his  soul.2  Strange  as  the 
temptation  seems  to  us  in  these  days,  the  tempters 
knew  well  what  they  had  in  view.  With  such  a  decla¬ 
ration  they  could  nullify  much  of  Rizal’s  influence 
upon  his  countrymen  and  possibly  allay  something  of 
the  spirit  of  revolt  that  on  all  sides  was  rising  in  the 
colony. 

To  the  commandant’s  house,  accordingly,  he  was  as¬ 
signed,  It  was  but  rude  commons  and  a  primitive  en¬ 
vironment.  The  sudden  and  cold  plunge  from  the 
place  of  respect  he  had  held  in  Europe  and  his  profit- 

1  Craig,  p.  196. 

3  Craig,  p.  198. 


254 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


able  position  in  Hong-Kong  would  have  overwhelmed 
a  weaker  spirit.  Rizal  accepted  the  stern  mutations 
with  the  unruffled  composure  that  was  always  his 
strong  anchor  in  whatsoever  difficulties.  4  4  No  man 
bears  sorrow  better, ’  ’  says  the  antique  Roman  of  him¬ 
self  ;  but  you  would  not  look  for  a  recrudescence  of 
Marcus  Brutus  in  a  Malay  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  the  same  spirit  he  now  arranged  his  time  upon  a 
schedule  after  his  invariable  custom,  and  resumed 
cheerfully  a  life  of  study  and  work.  Under  the  parole 
he  had  given  that  he  would  make  no  attempt  to  escape, 
he  was  allowed  to  go  about  as  he  pleased  and  without 
observation,  for  it  is  singular  that  this  traitor  and 
dangerous  character  was  implicitly  trusted  even  by 
his  enemies  so  far  as  any  question  of  personal  honor 
was  concerned.  He  had  never  a  guard  in  Dapitan., 
Not  only  so,  but  the  commandants,  one  after  another, 
and  all  the  soldiery,  from  private  to  highest  officers, 
fell  under  the  potent  charm  of  his  manner  and  became 
his  friends  and  admirers.  The  commandants  were  fre¬ 
quently  changed.  Each  in  turn  came  to  Dapitan 
warned  against  the  perilous  prisoner  there  and  there¬ 
fore  bristling  with  dislike;  each  went  away  swearing 
he  was  the  prince  of  good  fellows  and  sorry  for  his 
fate. 

At  all  times  he  was  the  most  industrious  of  exiles; 
he  must  have  had  a  spirit  akin  to  the  genius  of  per¬ 
petual  motion.  Day  after  day  he  plunged  into  the 
woods  to  study  the  animal  life  of  the  region,  collect 
specimens  and  write  elaborate  notes  about  shells,  bugs, 
crawling  things,  trees,  and  flowers.  He  explored  the 
coasts  of  Mindanao  and  visited  the  native  villages. 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


255 


With  evident  enthusiasm  he  revived  his  ethnological 
pleasures  and  collected  native  implements,  weapons 
and  manufactures,  many  of  which  from  his  hands  are 
now  in  the  museum  of  Dresden,  for  instance.1  True 
to  his  natural  inchnings,  one  of  his  first  employments 
had  been  to  look  about  him  at  the  chances  the  children 
of  that  region  had  to  gain  even  the  rudiments  of  edu¬ 
cation.  Finding  they  had  next  to  nothing,  he  gathered 
them  about  him  and  began  to  teach.  He  was  also  busy 
at  times  with  his  professional  ministrations.  Pa¬ 
tients  began  to  seek  him  from  Manila,  from  Hong- 
Kong,  and  even  from  more  distant  places,  so  great 
was  his  reputation  as  an  oculist.  With  the  fees  they 
paid  him  he  embarked  upon  beneficent  enterprises 
that  revealed  another  reserve  in  his  resourceful  mind. 

The  first  of  these  was  a  lighting  system  for  Dapitan ; 
the  next,  waterworks,  which  he  devised,  planned,  and 
superintended  in  person,  going  back  to  the  engineer¬ 
ing  lore  he  had  learned  at  the  Ateneo  and  then  laid 
aside.  Much  of  the  construction  was  difficult,  and  engi¬ 
neers  still  wonder  at  the  skill  and  courage  he  showed 
in  meeting  its  problems.  He  and  his  workmen  were 
without  the  proper  tools;  they  must  improvise  their 
own  materials,  and  bring  the  water  a  long  distance 
over  valleys  and  around  hills;  but  they  conquered 
every  obstacle.2 

1  Dr.  Craig,  p.  223,  has  photographic  reproductions  of  some  of  these. 

3  “Another  famous  and  well-known  water  supply  is  that  of  Dapitan, 
Mindanao,  designed  and  constructed  by  Dr.  Jose  Eizal  during  his  ban¬ 
ishment  in  that  municipality  by  the  Spanish  authorities.  .  .  .  This 
supply  comes  from  a  little  mountain  stream  across  the  river  from 
Dapitan  and  follows  the  contour  of  the  country  for  the  whole  distance. 
When  one  considers  that  Dr.  Rizal  had  no  explosives  with  which  to  blast 
the  hard  rocks,  and  no  resources  save  his  own  ingenuity,  one  cannot  help 
but  honor  a  man  that  against  adverse  conditions  had  the  courage  and 


256 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


When  this  task  was  done  he  bought  him  a  tract  of 
land  close  by  the  town,  built  a  house  on  it,  and  estab¬ 
lished  there  adequate  quarters  for  his  school* 

This  may  be  a  good  place  to  say  what  this  singular 
person  was  in  some  of  the  sciences  to  which  he  gave 
so  much  of  himself.  As  a  physician,  while  still  a 
student  at  Madrid  University,  he  had  made  commen¬ 
taries  of  remarkable  merit,  “Apuntes  de  Obstetricm” 
and  “Apuntes  Clinicos.”  As  an  ophthalmologist  he 
seemed  to  win  at  once  to  distinction  as  soon  as  he  left 
the  university.  This  Hr.  de  Weckert  of  Paris,  to 
whom  he  went  first,  was  of  too  great  repute  and  too 
well  supplied  with  candidates  to  have  selected  him  for 
chief  laboratory  assistant  if  he  had  not  been  of  un¬ 
usual  attainments.  It  appears  that  de  Weckert  was 
so  much  impressed  with  this  brown  man  from  Malaya 
that  they  began  a  warm  friendship  that  lasted  until 
RizaPs  death,  and  so  long  as  he  remained  in  Paris 
he  was  the  great  oculist’s  favorite  companion  and  col- 
laborateur .  In  Heidelberg,  Leipzig,  and  Berlin  he  was 
the  associate  and  assistant  of  men  like  Galezowsky  and 
Schulzer.  In  the  few  months  that  elapsed  between  his 
first  return  to  the  Philippines  and  his  departure  thence 
at  the  veiled  order  of  Terrero,  he  received  in  fees 
more  than  five  thousand  pesos,  a  sum  equivalent  to 
about  fifteen  thousand  pesos  of  the  present  day.  At 
Hong-Kong,  for  the  short  time  he  was  there,  his  office 

tenacity  to  construct  this  aqueduct,  which  had  for  its  bottom  the  fluted 
tiles  from  the  houseroofs  and  was  covered  with  concrete  made  from 
lime  burned  from  sea  coral.  The  length  of  this  aqueduct  is  several 
kilometers,  and  it  winds  in  and  out  among  the  roeks  and  is  carried 
across  gullies  in  bamboo  pipes  upheld  by  rock  or  brick  piers  to  the 
distributing  reservoir.  ’  ’ — Quarterly  Bulletin,  Department  of  Public 
Works,  October,  1912. 


H 


RIZALS  CELL  AT  FORT  SANTIAGO 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


257 


was  overrun  with  patients  from  all  that  part  of  the 
world.  As  we  have  seen,  they  followed  him  even  to 
far  Dapitan.  One  of  them  was  an  Englishman  that 
made  him  a  present  of  five  hundred  pesos,  brown  man 
and  Malay  as  he  was. 

As  an  ethnologist,  he  was  an  honored  member  of 
the  leading  ethnological  societies  of  Europe,  and  his 
close  friendship  with  Blumentritt  we  have  noted.  Dr. 
Meyer,  director  of  the  Royal  Saxony  Ethnographical 
Institute  of  Dresden,  regarded  him  with  admiration 
as  a  great  scholar  and  great  investigator.  With 
Meyer  and  with  Virchow  he  was  on  terms  of  confiden¬ 
tial  intimacy.  These  were  men  in  whom  ordinarily 
confidence  was  a  plant  of  slow  growth.  They  were 
drawn  to  and  believed  in  Rizal  because  he  had  mas¬ 
tered  their  specialty  and  could  meet  them  in  it  on 
their  own  footing.  All  those  rare  and  abstruse  works 
of  Muller,  Perschel,  Ratzel,  and  the  other  great 
leaders  in  ethnological  research  he  knew  well1  and, 
what  was  better,  he  had  ideas  of  his  own  about  them. 
Not  only  then  but  long  before;  he  had  been  mulling 
over  ethnological  principles  while  he  was  teaching 
Filipino  boys  at  the  Ateneo  the  best  way  to  land  on  the 
solar  plexus  of  a  young  Spanish  bully. 

As  a  naturalist  he  enriched  the  museums  of  Europe 
and  Manila  with  hundreds  of  specimens  of  his  gath¬ 
ering  and  preparing.  Flowers,  plants,  crustaceans 
and  all  forms  of  animal  life  attracted  his  study.  The 
German  museums  were  so  well  pleased  with  his  work 

1  Mr.  Soliven,  ‘  ‘  Rizal  as  a  Scientist.  ’  ’ 

In  about  three  years  he  sent  to  the  museum  at  Dresden  nine  mam¬ 
mals,  thirteen  birds,  forty-five  reptiles,  nine  fishes,  240  insects,  sixty- 
eight  crustaceans,  and  other  invertebrates. 


258 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


that  they  offered  him,  while  he  was  in  Dapitan,  a  re¬ 
munerative  salary  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  gath¬ 
ering  specimens  for  them,  and  they  still  exhibit  his 
collections  among  their  most  valued  possessions. 
Three  creatures,  previously  unknown  to  science,  pow 
bear  his  name  because  he  discovered  them.  One  is  a 
frog  called  the  Rhacoperus  Rizali;  the  second  is  a  cole- 
opter  called  the  Apogonis  Rizali;  and  the  third,  a 
dragon  called  the  Draco  Rizali. 

In  philology,  Rizal  won  the  friendship  and  esteem  of 
Dr.  Reinhold  Rost,  said  to  have  been  the  greatest 
philologist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  was  him¬ 
self  one  of  its  most  wonderful  polyglots.  While  he 
was  at  Dapitan,  to  baffle  the  censor,  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  his  sister  that  he  began  in  colloquial  German,  car¬ 
ried  on  in  colloquial  English,  and  concluded  in  col¬ 
loquial  French.1  But  this  was  for  him  a  most  trifling 
exploit  and  hardly  worth  noticing.  Besides  these  and 
Spanish,  of  which  he  was  a  master,  he  spoke  Latin, 
Greek,  Arab,  Sanskrit,  Hebrew,  Swedish,  Dutch, 
Catalan,  Italian,  Chinese,  Japanese,  Portuguese,  Rus¬ 
sian,  Tagalog,  Visayan,  and  the  Moro  dialects  of 
Dapitan.  One  of  his  papers,  a  scientific  treatise  on 
the  Visayan  language,  was  read  before  the  Ethno¬ 
graphical  Society  of  Berlin.  He  was  associated  with 
Dr.  Meyer  and  Dr.  Blumentritt  in  the  annotation  of 
a  Chinese  codicil  of  the  Middle  Ages.  While  at  Dapi¬ 
tan  he  began  to  write  a  scientific  Tagalog  grammar 
and  a  treatise  on  the  resemblances  between  Tagalog 
and  Visayan  speech.  To  amuse  himself  he  would 

1  Craig,  pp.  148-149. 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


259 


sometimes  adorn  a  title-page  or  drawing  with  quota¬ 
tions  in  Hebrew,  Sanskrit,  Japanese,  Spanish,  and 
English. 

As  to  other  sciences,  for  example,  he  excelled  in 
chemistry.  Before  he  was  twenty-one  he  had  obtained 
degrees  as  surveyor  and  agricultural  expert.  He  was 
an  excellent  engineer  and  so  scientific  an  educator  that 
when  the  Philippine  Republic  came  to  be  erected  the 
plan  of  the  educational  department  and  work  was 
taken  from  his  writings.  In  Leipzig  he  went  deeply 
into  psychology,  in  which  he  was  fellow-student  with 
Hugo  Munsterberg.  While  he  was  at  Dapitan  he 
learned  how  to  sail  a  ship,  and  taught  their  trade  to 
the  fishermen,  because  he  showed  them  how  to  make 
and  how  to  handle  a  better  kind  of  net. 

Incidentally,  he  had  the  makings  *of  a  great 
journalist. 

Concerning  his  place  as  a  poet,  most  of  his  poetry 
was  written  in  Spanish  and  after  the  approved  Span¬ 
ish  manner.  Like  other  poetry  it  is  virtually  incapable 
of  translation.  The  thought  may  be  indicated  but  not 
the  melodic  significance,  so  important  in  Spanish,  and 
of  which  he  was  a  facile  master.  How  impossible  it 
is  to  reproduce  this  in  translation  is  apparent  to  one 
that  will  compare  the  five-line  Spanish  stanza  as  Rizal 
left  it  and  the  best  English  version  of  the  same  stanza. 
A  poem  that  he  wrote  at  Dapitan,  ‘ ‘  My  Retreat,  ’  7 1 
dedicated  to  his  mother,  is  an  adequate  expression  of 
the  reverent  attitude  toward  nature  that  he  managed 
to  carry  with  him  unimpaired  in  so  many  vicissi- 

1  Printed  by  Retana,  pp.  328-329. 


260 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


tildes  and  long  inhumations  in  the  sordid  dust  of  cities. 
This  is  the  first  stanza  in  Mr.  Derbyshire’s  version: 1 

By  the  spreading  beach  where  the  sands  are  soft  and  fine, 

At  the  foot  of  the  mount  in  its  mantle  of  green, 

I  have  built  my  hut  in  the  pleasant  grove’s  confine 

From  the  forest  seeking  peace  and  a  calmness  divine, 

Best  for  the  weary  brain  and  silence  to  my  sorrow  keen. 

From  poetry,  we  pass  to  sociology,  a  transition  that 
might  seem  violent  enough  in  one  of  less  versatility. 
The  commandants,  of  course,  must  he  parts  of  the  gen¬ 
eral  machinery  of  espionage  and  report  to  Manila 
what  they  observed  in  this  evil  sprite  that  might  show 
dangerous  machinations  against  the  peace  and  dignity 
of  our  lord  the  king.  Some  of  the  reports  they  made 
are  still  extant.  One  of  them  sent  about  this  time  by 
a  commandant,  the  Captain  Ricardo  Camicero,  to  Gov¬ 
ernor-General  Despujol  contains  this  account  of  a 
conversation : 

Carnicero.  Tell  me,  Rizal,  what  reforms  seem  to  you  most 
vital  for  this  country  ? 

Rizal.  First  of  all,  to  secure  representation  for  it  in  the 
Cortes  [Spanish  parliament]  that  there  may  be  an  end  to  the 
despotisms  now  committed  upon  it. 

Next  to  secularize  the  priesthood,2  abolishing  the  power  the 
friars  now  exercise  over  the  Government  and  the  country.  To 
distribute  the  parishes  as  they  become  vacant,  among  the  body 
of  the  clergy,  so  that  the  clergy  may  be  both  Spanish  and 
Philippine. 

1  See  Appendix  A. 

3  He  refers  to  the  long  contest  between  the  orders  and  the  part  of  the 
clergy  (largely  native)  that  was  outside  of  the  orders,  called  “the  secu¬ 
lar  clergy.  ’  ’  What  he  means  is  to  end  the  power  of  the  orders  to  fill  the 
parish  appointments.  In  this  conversation,  Carnicero  seems  to  be  leading 
him  to  speak  of  the  friars — the  most  perilous  of  topics. 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


261 


To  reform  the  administration  in  all  its  branches. 

To  promote  primary  instruction,  to  end  the  interference  of 
the  friars  in  the  control  of  education,  to  give  better  salaries  to 
both  men  and  women  teachers. 

To  divide  civil  appointments  equally  between  the  Spaniards 
and  the  Filipinos. 

To  cleanse  the  administration  of  justice. 

To  establish  in  capitals  of  more  than  16,000  inhabitants 
schools  of  arts  and  crafts. 

These  are  my  chief  reforms.  Once  established  in  the  right 
spirit,  the  Philippines  would  be  the  happiest  country  in  the 
world. 

Carnicero.  Friend  Rizal,  these  reforms  of  yours  do  not 
seem  to  me  at  all  bad ;  but  you  seem  to  forget  that  the  friars 
have  as  much  influence  in  Madrid  as  in  Manila,  and  for  this 
reason  it  would  be  practically  impossible  at  this  time  to  put 
these  changes  into  effect. 

Rizal.  Do  not  think  so.  The  influence  of  the  friars  is 
waning  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  I  am  bold  enough  to  assure 
you  that  wherever  a  government,  even  a  little  advanced,  would 
give  a  free  hand  to  five  or  six  honest  and  patriotic  men,  the 
power  of  the  friars  would  disappear.  In  Madrid  it  is  per¬ 
fectly  well  known  what  the  friars  are  doing  here.  So  true  is 
this  that  in  the  first  interview  I  had  with  Pi  y  Linares  Rivas, 
when  he  was  a  member  of  the  Liberal  party  of  Spain,  he  told 
me  of  things  in  this  country  of  which,  although  I  was  born 
here,  I  had  been  in  ignorance.  I  can  cite  to  you  many  other 
instances  of  men  in  Spain  that  have  exact  data  on  the  lives 
and  characters  of  the  friars  in  the  Philippines.  These  gentle¬ 
men  said  to  me:  “The  bad  governments  that  in  Spain  are 
following  one  another  are  blamed  for  many  abuses  that  in 
reality  are  wrought  by  the  religious  corporations.  On  the  day 
when  things  change  we  shall  not  forget  the  real  offenders.’ 9 
Excuse  me  for  saying  this  to  you,  but  the  friars  are  not  wanted 


262 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


in  the  Philippines.  Always  they  become  more  repugnant  and 
hateful  as  always  they  interfere  the  more  in  conditions  and 
affairs  that  do  not  belong  to  them.1 

Where  lay  the  sedition  that  Rizal  plotted  is  evident 
from  this  report,  and  equally  evident  what  power  pulled 
the  strings  behind  puppet  king  and  manikin  premier. 

He  must  have  had  reason,  even  in  far  Dapitan,  to 
wonder  if  there  were  any  place  out  of  range  of  the 
malicious  or  the  dull.  Persons  that  thought  they  had 
a  call  to  reform  him  and  other  persons  that  believed 
they  had  been  appointed  to  torture  him  would  not 
leave  him  alone  even  here.  It  was  a  place  with  what 
was  called  a  mail  service ;  in  the  course  of  time  almost 
any  letter  that  had  passed  the  censor  would  come  limp¬ 
ing  in.  Among  such  freight  arrived  one  day  a  labori¬ 
ous  effort  from  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  Phil¬ 
ippines,  the  Rev.  Father  Pastells,  in  which  he  took 
occasion  to  offer  disagreeable  remarks.  Rizal  might 
have  responded  in  kind,  if  he  had  pleased ;  as  to  which, 
take  note  of  some  of  the  sarcastic  passages  in  “  Noli 
Me  Tangere.”  Instead  of  flouting  his  reverend  critic, 
he  chose  to  favor  him  with  a  serious  letter  in  which 
the  faith  that  guided  his  course  was  set  forth  with  the 
eloquence  of  honesty.  He  wrote : 

You  exclaim:  “What  a  pity  that  so  gifted  a  youth  should 
not  have  used  his  talents  in  a  better  cause.”  Possibly  there 
are  other  causes  better  than  mine.  But  my  cause  is  good,  and 
that  is  enough  for  me. 

Others,  perhaps,  may  gain  more  honors  and  greater  glory. 
But  I  am  like  the  bamboo,  which  is  also  a  native  of  this  soil. 
It  is  used  for  cottages  of  light  material  and  not  for  heavy 

1  Retana,  p.  327. 


THE  EXILE  OF  DAPITAN 


263 


European  buildings.  So  I  regret  neither  my  humble  cause 
nor  its  small  rewards.  I  only  regret  the  little  talent  that  God 
has  given  me  to  use  in  its  service.  If  instead  of  being  weak 
bamboo  I  had  been  solid  hardwood,  I  should  have  been  able 
to  give  better  aid.  But  He  that  made  me  what  I  am  never 
makes  mistakes  in  any  of  His  acts.  He  knows  very  well  how 
useful  are  even  the  smallest  cottages. 

As  to  any  fame,  honor,  or  profit  that  I  might  have  gained,  I 
admit  all  that  to  sound  attractive,  for  I  am  a  young  man  of 
flesh  and  blood  with  a  full  share  of  human  weaknesses.  But 
no  one  chooses  the  nationality  or  race  into  which  he  is  born. 
With  his  birth  he  profits  by  the  privileges  or  suffers  the  dis¬ 
advantages  that  race  and  nationality  bring.  So  I  accept  the 
cause  of  my  country. 

I  have  confidence  that  He  that  created  me  a  Filipino  will 
know  how  to  pardon  in  me  mistakes  due  to  our  hard  position 
and  the  poor  education  we  receive  from  our  birth. 

I  am  not  working  for  fame  or  glory.  I  have  no  ambition  to 
rival  others  that  are  born  into  conditions  very  different  from 
my  own. 

My  only  desire  is  to  do  all  I  can  within  the  limits  of  my 
powers.  I  wish  most  to  do  what  is  needed  most.  I  have  re¬ 
ceived  a  little  learning  and  I  think  I  ought  to  teach  it  to  my 
countrymen.  Others  more  fortunate  than  I  may  work  for  the 
great  things.1 

He  had  letters  of  a  different  tenor  from  members 
of  his  family,  toward  whom  he  yearned  all  his  life 
with  an  almost  singular  devotion;  but  for  his  strong 
sense  of  family  duty  he  might  then  be  receipting  for 
great  fees  and  living  sweetly  in  Hong-Kong  instead  of 
facing  the  miseries  of  Dapitan.  Of  this  fact  he  never 
made  a  mention  to  any  one,  if  he  thought  of  it  him- 

1  Dr.  Craig’s  translation,  first  printed  with  his  “Rizal’s  Own  Story.” 


264 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


self.  Among  the  letters  from  these  relatives  that  he 
held  so  dear  came  one  from  a  nephew  in  Luzon  to  which 
he  made  the  following  characteristic  reply: 

I  think  I  ought  to  mention  to  you  a  slight  fault  that  you 
have  committed  in  your  letter.  It  is  a  little  error  that  many 
in  society  make. 

One  does  not  say,  “I  and  my  sister  greet  you,”  but  “my 
sister  and  I  greet  you.”  Always  you  have  to  put  yourself 
last.  You  should  say,  “Emilio  and  I,”  “you  and  I,”  and  so 
on.  For  the  rest,  your  letter  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  in 
clearness,  conciseness,  and  spelling.  Then  keep  on  advancing. 
Learn,  learn,  and  think  much  about  what  you  learn.  Life  is 
a  very  serious  matter.  It  only  goes  well  for  those  that  have 
intelligence  and  heart.  To  live  is  to  be  among  men,  and  to  be 
among  men  is  to  strive. 

But  this  strife  is  not  a  brute-like,  selfish  struggle,  nor  with 
men  alone.  It  is  a  strife  with  them,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  one’s  own  passions.  It  is  a  struggle  with  the  proprieties, 
with  errors,  with  prejudices.  It  is  a  never  ending  striving, 
with  a  smile  on  the  lips  and  the  tears  in  the  heart. 

On  this  battle-field  man  has  no  better  weapon  than  his  in¬ 
telligence.  He  possesses  no  more  force  than  he  has  heart. 
Bring  it  out,  then.  Improve  it,  keep  it  prepared,  and 
strengthen  and  educate  yourself  for  this. 

Upon  such  a  spirit  the  horrors  of  exile  must  have 
weighed  little.  In  a  region  strange,  at  that  time  un¬ 
couth  and,  compared  with  many  in  “your  Oriental 
Eden  Isles,”  unattractive,  he  offers  to  the  world  an 
unaccustomed  figure  of  the  outcast.  He  went  with¬ 
out  repining  to  regular  and  useful  work  while  he  un¬ 
derstood  well  enough  that  he  was  a  sacrificial  offering 
and  fated  to  be  so ;  the  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  re- 


SPECIMENS  OF  RIZAL’s  MODELING  WHEN  AN  EXILE  AT  DAPITAN,  BOTH  SELF-EXPLANATORY 


THE  EXILE  OF  HAPITAN 


265 


actionary  Interests  were  concentrated  upon  him;  he 
was  victimized  for  his  countrymen.  Only  two  priva¬ 
tions  seemed  poignant  to  him.  He  longed  for  his 
family;  he  missed  his  books.  With  these,  it  appears, 
he  would  have  been  content,  eying  cheerfully  the  fate 
that  seemed  to  have  at  last  defined  his  career;  for  he 
had  little  doubt  he  should  end  his  days  on  this  lonely 
shore.  For  consolation  in  his  spiritual  lack,  he  turned 
to  his  arts  and  modeled  assiduously ;  some  of  the  most 
marvelous  of  his  sculptures  belong  to  this  period. 
Among  them  the  bust  of  Father  Guerrico  1  that  was 
exhibited  years  afterward  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposi¬ 
tion,  and  won  a  gold  medal  there.2  He  was  the  spon¬ 
taneous  artist  that  without  conscious  effort  descries 
beauty  in  commonplace  things.  Opposite  his  dwelling 
a  native  woman,  bent  upon  one  knee,  was  cleaning  the 
street  for  a  coming  festival.  Something  in  her  pose 
and  garmenture  struck  him  as  a  graceful  character¬ 
istic;  he  modeled  her  as  she  labored.3  From  memory 
he  modeled  busts  and  medallions  of  men  he  had  known 
in  Europe  and  Asia;  in  his  sketch-hook  he  preserved 
effects  he  noticed  in  sky,  sea,  and  woods.  He  returned 
to  poetic  composition  and  produced  now  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  his  works.  More  than  this  in  armor 
of  patience  the  Stoics  themselves  could  demand  noth¬ 
ing.  How  many  Highland  Scotch  have  stood  upon  the 
sands  of  France  and  sighed  away  their  souls  north¬ 
ward?  And  how  often  have  the  sympathetic  thought 
with  compassion  of  the  English  pioneers  in  early 

1  Rizal  to  his  mother. 

2  Retana,  p.  338. 

8  Craig,  p.  103, 


266 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


America,  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers  that  first  bleak  win¬ 
ter,  of  Hugo  in  Jersey  and  Napoleon  chained  to  his 
rock  1  This  man  hunted  out  the  beauties  of  exile,  made 
them  his  friends  and  companions,  taught  his  pupils, 
made  poetry,  carved  statues,  loved  his  fellows,  and 
thanked  God. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  KATIPUNAN 

TO  his  father  and  mother  he  wrote  urging  them  to 
come  to  Dapitan  and  make  their  home  on  the  land 
that  he  had  bought.  In  this  he  must  have  lightly  esti¬ 
mated  the  rancor  or  the  vigilance  of  his  enemies,  or 
have  been  imperfectly  informed  about  what  was  going 
on  in  Manila — or  both.  It  was  a  time  when  all  sus¬ 
pected  persons  were  to  be  watched  with  unusual  dili¬ 
gence,  and  of  these  the  Rizal  family  came  first.  Mean¬ 
time,  the  exile’s  fate,  of  which  he  was  wont  to  take  a 
somber  view,  shifted  somewhat  its  familiar  aspect  of 
misfortune  and  sent  him  one  gleam  of  happiness.  In 
the  midst  of  his  lonely  state  and  Promethean  miseries 
adroitly  prepared  for  him,  he  met  a  woman  that  at¬ 
tracted  him,  and  ended  by  marrying  her. 

This  came  about  after  a  strange  fashion.  All  this 
time  he  had  been  faithful  to  the  memory  of  Leonora.1 
A  few  months  after  he  had  taken  up  his  residence  in 
Dapitan  there  came  thither  a  patient  from  Hong-Kong 
named  Taufer,  an  American  engineer,  blind,  and 
drawn  to  Dapitan  by  the  fame  of  the  great  oculist.2 
He  had  with  him  his  adopted  daughter  Josefina,  who 
promptly  fell  in  love  with  Rizal.  Her  real  name  was 
Josephine  Bracken;  her  parentage  was  Irish.  Her 

1Retana,  p.  338. 

2  Craig,  p.  272. 

267 


268 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


father  had  been  a  non-commissioned  officer  in  the 
British  army  and  stationed  at  Hong-Kong.  When  he 
died  he  left  a  large  family  in  extreme  poverty. 
Taufer,  who  was  a  kindly  man  of  some  means,  adopted 
the  youngest  child  as  a  matter  of  charity  and  then 
grew  to  love  her  as  if  she  had  been  his  own  daughter. 
For  seventeen  years  she  had  been  his  daily  companion ; 
in  the  long  night  of  his  blindness  she  was  his  guide 
and  comforter. 

If  her  portraits  do  her  justice,  Josephine  must  have 
had  unusual  beauty,  but  her  letters  do  not  reveal  in 
her  the  intellectual  gifts  that  would  have  made  her 
an  ideal  companion  for  Jose  Rizal.  Yet  she  must 
have  been  sympathetic,  and  he,  solitary  at  the  world’s 
outpost,  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  her.  When  he 
came  to  ask  her  hand  in  marriage  of  her  guardian,  Mr. 
Taufer  was  overcome  with  grief.  An  hour  later,  he 
attempted  suicide.  He  was  blind ;  the  examinations  of 
Rizal  had  shown  no  chance  that  his  eyesight  could  be 
restored ;  a  daughter  of  his  had  but  lately  left  him  to 
be  married ;  he  had  lost  his  first  wife ;  his  second  mar¬ 
riage  had  not  been  happy;  and  he  felt  that  without 
Josephine  there  was  nothing  to  five  for.  Rizal  came 
upon  him  razor  in  hand  about  to  carry  out  his  threat 
and  narrowly  rescued  him  from  himself.1 

After  this,  a  marriage  seemed  impossible,  and  Jo¬ 
sephine  returned  to  Hong-Kong  with  Taufer. 

But  the  affair  had  gone  so  far  that  already  Rizal 
had  made  overtures  to  the  parish  priest  to  perform 
the  ceremony.  The  priest  shook  his  head :  there  were 
RizaPs  well  known  heresies  in  the  way;  he  could  not 

1  Craig,  p.  214;  Retana,  pp.  339-340. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


269 


marry  a  heretic.  Rizal  said  that  if  by  heresies  his 
political  opinions  were  meant,  nothing  could  induce 
him  to  profess  any  change  in  them;  but  if  the  priest 
meant  religious  views,  he  was  ready  to  declare  that 
he  was  and  had  been  at  all  times  a  faithful  son  of  the 
Catholic  religion  and  purposed  so  to  remain.  The 
priest  thought  a  declaration  to  this  effect  might  win 
past  the  bishop,  who  now  appeared  as  the  chief  ob¬ 
stacle  ;  at  least  he  would  send  to  Cebu  to  find  out.  The 
letter  of  inquiry  he  had  written  and  was  about  to 
despatch  when  news  came  that  the  engagement  had 
been  broken.  The  letter  was  never  sent. 

None  the  less,  Rizal  and  Josephine  continued  to  re¬ 
gard  themselves  as  plighted,  and  after  a  time  in  Hong- 
Kong  Mr.  Taufer  was  won  over  to  consent  to  their 
union.  Josephine  went  to  Manila,  where  she  made  the 
acquaintance  of  RizaPs  mother  and  sisters.  She  was 
about  to  start  for  Dapitan  to  renew  the  attempt  to 
gain  the  sanction  of  the  church  when  in  a  conversation 
Mrs.  Mercado  reminded  her  that  there  were  two  views 
of  this  proceeding.  It  was  doubtful  if  the  bishop  could 
be  induced  to  think  well  of  the  marriage;  but  even  if 
he  could  his  permission  would  then  be  regarded  as  evi¬ 
dence  of  compromise  on  RizaPs  part.  In  the  opinion 
of  many  of  his  countrymen  he  enlisted  against  the 
church  when  he  enrolled  against  the  friars;  since  the 
religious  orders  had  come  to  control  the  ecclesiastic 
as  well  as  the  political  administration,  the  distinction 
between  church  and  friar  was  to  some  minds  fairly 
vague.  Mrs.  Mercado  desired  that  nothing  should 
weaken  her  son’s  influence;  a  constancy  from  which 
we  may  surmise  of  what  fighting  stock  she  came.  She 


270 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


knew  that  anything  that  looked  like  compromise  would 
hearten  his  enemies  and  dismay  his  friends.  There¬ 
fore,  she  suggested  a  civil  marriage,  the  church  to  be 
ignored.  Civil  marriages  and  even  common-law  mar¬ 
riages  were  now  authorized  by  the  laws  of  Spain,  and, 
if  not  yet  decreed  in  the  islands,  were  legally  binding 
there.1 

This  advice  the  lovers  deemed  good  when  J osephine 
reached  Dapitan  and  reported  it;  there  was  no  more 
talk  of  a  dispensation  from  the  bishop  of  Cebu.  A 
marriage  ceremony  was  performed  by  the  simple  de¬ 
vice  of  the  taking  of  hands  before  witnesses  and  the 
registering  of  their  mutual  vows. 

RizaPs  stout-hearted  mother  succeeded  about  this 
time  in  winning  permission  to  visit  her  son ;  later  came 
two  of  his  sisters.  Their  presence  revived  in  him  the 
hope  he  had  once  cherished  of  uniting  his  family  in  a 
spot  where,  after  so  much  of  strife  and  grief,  they 
might  begin  life  afresh  and  be  free  from  the  friars 
that  were  the  landlords  and  rulers  of  Binan  and 
Calamba.  He  could  see  no  reason  why  Mindanao 
should  not  be  well  adapted  to  their  needs.  Govern¬ 
ment  could  not  urge  against  such  a  plan  the  objection 
it  used  against  the  North  Borneo  project;  Mindanao 
was  Philippine  territory.  He  wrote  to  Despujol  ask¬ 
ing  for  the  necessary  permits  and  received  a  chilly 
answer  reminding  him  that  he  was  an  exile  and  an  out¬ 
cast  and  in  no  position  to  seek  favors  of  his  Govern¬ 
ment.  Steady  persistence  in  the  face  of  whatever 
rebuff  was  one  of  RizaPs  strongest  traits;  the  man 
seemed  as  incapable  of  discouragement  as  George 

1  Craig,  p.  215;  Derbyshire,  p.  xlvii. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


271 


Washington  was;  and  the  philosophical  reader  of  his¬ 
tory  may  well  consider  the  appearance  of  this  quality 
in  three  men  that  founded  three  nations,  William  the 
Silent,  Washington,  and  Rizal,  and  inquire  whether 
in  value  to  the  world  this  possession  did  not  overtop 
all  others.  With  one  cherished  hope  crushed,  he 
turned  to  another.  He  set  himself  to  improve  agricul¬ 
ture  in  the  region  where  he  had  been  marooned;  he 
showed  the  farmers  how  they  could  raise  better  crops 
and  get  better  prices  for  them.  From  the  United 
States,  where  in  his  travels  he  had  observed  with  in¬ 
terest  the  latest  agricultural  inventions,  he  imported 
modern  farm  machinery,  using  it  upon  his  own  place 
and  teaching  its  use  to  others.  It  has  been  the  lot  of 
few  men  to  lead  lives  of  such  varied  use  to  their  fel¬ 
lows.  He  seemed  to  go  through  the  world  with  eyes 
observing  whatever  was  done  around  him  and  mind 
considering  how  it  could  be  done  better. 

Meantime,  in  Manila  great  changes  had  been  at 
work,  of  which  he  knew  nothing.  The  discontent  of 
the  people,  always  growing,  had  begun  to  find  a  new 
expression.  Another  leader  had  arisen,  in  all  ways 
different  from  Kizal  except  in  this  that  he,  too,  was  an 
inevitable  product  of  the  attempt  to  force  upon  a 
people  a  distasteful  sovereignty.  It  has  been  much 
the  fashion,  particularly  with  writers  of  a  scholastic 
bent  or  reactionary  sympathy  (which  is  probably  the 
same  thing),  to  speak  ill  of  Andres  Bonifacio.  If 
we  desire  a  just  estimate  of  the  forces  that  worked  in 
diverse  ways  for  Philippine  freedom,  we  are  not  to 
dismiss  this  man  lightly 1  nor  to  speak  of  him  with  dis- 

1  Ketana,  p.  248,  hails  him  as  ‘  ‘  Grand  figure ! f  1 


272 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


respect.  Successful  revolutions  demand  the  man  that 
thinks  and  the  man  that  acts,  Mazzinis  and  Garibaldis, 
Jeff er sons  and  Washingtons.  Rizal  was  the  Mazzini 
of  the  Philippine  struggle ;  Bonifacio  was  its  Garibaldi. 

He  was  born  in  the  working-class,  was  almost  wholly 
self-educated,  and  at  the  time  he  began  to  be  powerful 
in  Philippine  destiny  was  a  porter  in  a  maritime  ware¬ 
house  of  Manila.  In  his  youth  he  developed  a  passion 
for  reading;  he  read  when  other  persons  slept,  ate, 
or  idled.  By  diligent  study  in  the  night-time  he  ac¬ 
quired  a  knowledge  of  history  and  its  philosophy  that 
in  a  man  of  his  handicaps  and  employment  was  not 
less  than  marvelous  and  alone  would  have  indicated 
a  phenomenal  capacity.1  He  studied  deeply  the  stories 
of  other  peoples  oppressed,  the  Israelites  in  Egypt, 
the  Dutch  under  Spain,  the  American  colonies  under 
England,  the  French  under  their  monarchical  system, 
and  formulated  from  these  a  church  militant  of  demo¬ 
cratic  faith  and  principles  of  which  he  was  first  the 
acolyte  and  then  the  devout  minister.  In  the  end  it 
mastered  all  his  thought  and  waking  hours  and  be¬ 
came  essentially  his  life.  Something  of  the  great  truth 
he  saw  clearly  that  the  substance  of  all  real  progress 
in  civilization  has  been  progress  in  democracy,  and  for 
the  most  part  this  has  been  won  by  hard  blows,  rude 
encounters,  and  illimitable  sacrifices.  He  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  magical  stimulus  that  came  to  the  world 
from  the  successive  emancipations  of  the  American 
and  the  French  peoples  and  another  glimpse  of  the 
probable  effect  of  a  similar  emancipation  on  his  own. 
Upon  the  condition  of  those  countrymen  of  his,  drag- 

1  Fernandez,  p.  241. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


273 


ging  at  a  chain  that  stifled  in  them  all  mental  vitality 
with  all  self-respect,  he  stared  with  growing  impa¬ 
tience  while  he  burned  and  fretted  for  another  Bunker 
Hill  and  another  Yorktown. 

He  was  of  somewhat  violent  passions  and  such  de¬ 
ficiencies  in  self-control  as  were  to  have  been  expected 
from  his  experiences  and  inadequate  training.  Never¬ 
theless,  he  had  great  sincerity,  a  mind  of  extraor¬ 
dinary  fertility,  and  a  readiness  for  swift  decision  and 
action.  He  showed  himself  to  be  indomitable  when 
wholly  concentered  upon  the  one  cause;  and  his  con¬ 
tribution  to  it  is  not  now  to  be  disparaged  because  he 
happened  to  come  no  nearer  the  academic  walk  than 
Lincoln  came. 

When  Rizal,  lured  from  Hong-Hong  by  false  prom¬ 
ises  of  safety,  landed  in  Manila,  Bonifacio  was  twen¬ 
ty-nine  years  old.  He  had  long  revolved  in  his  mind 
the  fact  so  patent  to  all  observing  Filipinos  that  the 
first  step  to  their  freedom  must  be  unity.  About  the 
time  Rizal  was  founding  his  Liga  Filipina,  Bonifacio 
was  formulating  another  and  much  more  portentous 
union.  The  two  were  launched  about  the  same  time; 
one  in  the  open,  the  other  in  the  dark  and  with  the  ut¬ 
most  secrecy.  Bonifacio  called  his  society  the  Kataas- 
taasang  Kagalanggalang  Katipunan  ng  mga  Anak 
Bavan,  which  being  interpreted  means  Supreme  Most 
Respected  Association  of  the  Sons  of  the  People.  For 
brevity ’s  sake  the  long  unwieldy  name  soon  came  to 
be  shortened  into  K.K.K.  or  the  Katipunan,  and  so 
remains  in  history.  Bonifacio  shaped  it  like  a  masonic 
lodge,  with  a  ritual,  passwords,  grips,  and  the  swearing 
of  fealty  and  silence.  Its  avowed  object  was  the  over- 


274 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


throwing  by  force  of  the  Spanish  power  and  the  estab¬ 
lishing  of  the  Philippine  nation,  free  and  independent. 

It  appears  now  that  the  name  of  Rizal  was  used  as 
an  honorary  president  of  this  society,1  but  wholly 
without  his  authority  or  even  knowledge.  For  this  un¬ 
warranted  use  Bonifacio  was  much  to  blame.  It  is 
likely  that  he  found  at  first  some  difficulty  in  securing 
recruits  and  took  advantage  of  RizaPs  great  popu¬ 
larity.  Either  so,  or  what  seems  more  probable  to 
us,  he  expected  to  have  RizaPs  support  for  the  Kati- 
punan  when  it  should  have  grown  to  formidable  size. 
In  either  case,  the  course  was  inexcusable.  But  we 
are  to  remember  that  Bonifacio,  warring  against  the 
most  unprincipled  and  ruthless  of  powers,  believed  he 
was  justified  in  using  any  weapons  that  came  to  his 
hand. 

Month  after  month  the  Katipunan  spread  among  the 
disgusted  and  restless  Filipinos — secretly,  always ; 
and  we  are  to  surmise  that  the  care  with  which  the 
movement  was  to  be  concealed  until  the  instant  of  the 
blow  recommended  it  to  people  smarting  under  a  Gov¬ 
ernment  so  obese  and  still  so  viciously  protected.  How 
long  this  Government  was  ignorant  of  what  was  going 
on  nobody  knows.  If  the  vast  network  of  spies  and 
agents  provocateurs,  with  which  Spanish,  like  Rus¬ 
sian,  rule  was  maintained,  brought  in  no  hint  of  the 
mine  that  was  being  driven  beneath  the  feet  of  the 
governing  class,  the  spies  must  have  made  their  first 
recorded  failure,  and  that  concerning  the  one  thing 
most  important  to  their  employers.  Filipinos,  one  may 
say,  had  not  so  known  these  ever  busy  birds  of  ill  omen. 

1  Fernandez,  p.  240. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


275 


The  deportation  of  Rizal  gave  to  the  Katipunan  a 
great  impetus;  the  masses  of  people  bitterly  resented 
the  cowardice  and  perfidy  that  had  contrived  at  last  to 
drag  down  the  popular  champion.  At  first  they  knew 
no  way  to  voice  their  protest.  The  Katipunan  re¬ 
lieved  them  of  their  uncertainty;  it  was  the  weapon 
thrust  into  their  hands.  A  year  went  by  under  this 
slowly  darkening  sky;  then  two  years.  Rizal  was  at 
Dapitan;  it  seemed  likely  he  would  remain  there  until 
his  last  day,  for  nothing  would  soften  the  hatred  with 
which  the  friars  and  patricians  regarded  him,  and 
their  word  was  the  country’s  law.  Yet  if  he  could 
be  brought  back  in  the  character  of  a  revolutionary 
leader  the  whole  country  would  rise  behind  him.  In¬ 
genious  minds  brooded  upon  the  ease  with  which  he 
could  be  rescued.  Only  a  small  force  of  troops 
guarded  Dapitan ;  it  could  be  overpowered  by  a  hand¬ 
ful  of  resolute  men.  Rizal ’s  habit  was  to  take  long 
canoe  journeys  alone  around  the  coast,  pursuing  his 
scientific  inquiries;  of  his  own  will  he  would  never 
violate  his  parole,  but  suppose  he  should  be  seized  and 
carried  off  by  force?  He  could  then  be  picked  up  by  a 
British  mail-steamer,  be  landed  at  Singapore,  and  be 
free.  Intimations  of  these  plans  were  conveyed  to 
him :  he  vetoed  all  of  them.  It  was  his  word  of  honor 
that  he  had  given  never  to  attempt  to  escape ;  not  even 
with  the  least  connivance  at  a  rescue  would  he  taint 
his  word ;  not  even  by  allowing  other  men  to  entertain 
a  thought  that  his  faith  could  be  tainted;  and  not  even 
in  dealing  with  a  Government  that  had  dealt  perfidi¬ 
ously  with  him. 

Bonifacio,  looking  into  the  faces  of  his  people,  be- 


276 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


lieved  more  strongly  every  day  that  the  time  to  strike 
was  near  at  hand,  and  every  day  he  longed  the  more 
for  the  active  assistance  of  Rizal.1  He  knew  well 
enough  the  danger  his  movement  stood  in  and  how  that 
danger  increased  hour  by  hour  as  knowledge  of  what 
was  afoot  spread  and  could  be  therefore  the  less  easily 
controlled.  At  last  he  went  to  the  length  of  sending 
an  emissary  to  see  Rizal,  to  lay  before  him  the  plans 
for  the  revolution  and  to  ask  his  help.  The  messenger 
chosen  was  Pio  Valenzuela,  a  name  afterwards  famous 
and  honored  among  his  countrymen.  To  disguise  the 
real  object  of  his  visit  he  took  with  him  a  blind  man 
upon  whom,  it  was  pretended,  Rizal  was  to  perform  an 
operation.  Helped  by  this  ruse,  the  messenger  had  a 
fair  chance  to  talk  freely  with  the  exile. 

What  took  place  at  their  meeting  was  long  in  dis¬ 
pute.  Enemies  of  Philippine  independence  have  as¬ 
serted  that  in  wrathfully  rejecting  Bonifacio’s  appeal 
Rizal  declared  himself  against  any  effort  for  national 
freedom.  This  is  in  accordance  with  a  common  pro¬ 
cess  of  over-emphasizing  (for  propaganda  effect) 
Rizal ’s  dislike  of  force  and  doubt  of  the  present  readi¬ 
ness  of  his  people  for  self-government.  It  is  certain 
that  he  declined  Valenzuela’s  proposal  and  with  some 
heat ; 2  we  may  also  believe  that  with  all  his  might  he 
strove  to  dissuade  his  countrymen  from  violence.  Yet 
there  is  testimony  extant  that  when  he  found  all  his 
pleadings  were  useless  and  the  violence  he  feared  was 
but  too  likely  he  admitted  that  he  could  not  in  any  event 

1Eetana,  p.  342. 

2  Craig,  p.  224;  also,  Retana,  p.  342. 


THE  KATIPUNAN  277 

separate  his  sympathies  from  his  struggling  country¬ 
men. 

The  disputed  versions  of  his  reply  are  not  worth  the 
attention  they  have  had,  because,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  here  and  more  than  once,  Rizal’s  convictions  on 
these  matters  are  clear.  One  obvious  reflection  is 
enough  to  illustrate  them.  If  he  had  lived  through 
such  strenuous  days  as  followed  1896  he  would  have 
been  found  in  the  front  ranks  of  those  that  fought  for 
freedom  and  yet  would  never  have  ceased  to  mourn 
that  freedom  could  not  be  won  in  another  way.  As  to 
this,  “El  Filibusterismo, ’ ’  if  there  were  nothing  else, 
would  be  testimony  enough;  and  if  Philippine  inde¬ 
pendence  involved  only  sentimental  and  not  com¬ 
mercial  interests  there  would  be  no  attempt  to  distort 
or  to  obscure  it. 

When  Bonifacio  received  Valenzuela’s  report  of 
Rizal’s  decision,  he  swore,  after  his  fashion,  and  de¬ 
termined  to  press  on  with  his  own  plans  and  forget 
the  exile.  Against  the  notion  that  the  Philippines  were 
unready  for  revolution  or  unfitted  for  self-government 
he  set  himself  like  a  man  in  a  battle  that  has  thrown 
away  fear  with  his  scabbard.  He  recalled  that,  weigh¬ 
ing  duly  the  relative  strengths  of  the  antagonists,  the 
American  colonists  were  not  worse  prepared  for  the 
struggle  that  set  them  free.  Most  revolutions,  history 
had  taught  him,  had  been  begun  by  people  that  fought 
with  broken  weapons  or  bare  hands;  witness  Camille 
Desmoulins  and  the  ragged  crowd  he  led  from  the  cafe 
in  the  courtyard  of  the  Palais  Royal  that  fateful  night 
in  July.  Hardly  a  weapon  among  them  all  more 


278 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


deadly  than  a  hammer,  and  yet  to  the  echo  of  their 
feet  fell  absolute  government  in  every  comer  of 
Europe.  All  the  world  now  honors  those  empty  hands ; 
on  the  very  spot  where  Desmoulins  addressed  the 
crowd,  behold  now  his  statue!  Are  revolutions  ever 
wrought  by  well  ordered  ranks  of  daintily  uniformed 
guards  ?  Are  they  ever  launched  when  every  condition 
is  fitted,  like  joiner- work,  to  their  success?  And,  in 
fact,  are  they  ever  made  to  any  man’s  volition  or  by 
anything  but  blind  destiny  that  sits  behind  the  whirl¬ 
wind? 

Bonifacio,  at  least,  had  no  idea  of  waiting  until  the 
Philippines  should  be  populated  with  university 
graduates  able  to  demonstrate  in  scholarly  phrases  the 
philosophical  sweetness  of  liberty.  Desiring  freedom, 
he  desired  it  then  and  there.  Month  by  month,  the 
Katipunan  spread  and  carried  with  it,  as  a  flood  car¬ 
ries  a  straw,  the  catastrophe  of  this  story. 

At  Dapitan  life  went  on  unchangingly.  It  is  likely 
that  Rizal  had  there  a  happiness  and  a  serenity  he 
had  not  known  since  childhood.  He  says  as  much  in 
one  of  his  letters: 

My  life  now  is  quiet,  peaceful,  retired,  and  without  glory; 
but  I  think  it  is  useful,  too.  I  teach  here  the  poor  but  intelli¬ 
gent  boys  reading,  Spanish,  English,  mathematics,  and  geom¬ 
etry.  Moreover,  I  teach  them  to  behave  like  men.  I  taught 
the  men  here  how  to  get  a  better  way  of  earning  their  living, 
and  they  think  I  am  right.  We  have  begun,  and  already  suc¬ 
cess  has  crowned  our  trials. 

He  tells  how  even  in  that  out-of-the-way  place  there 
were  lessons  for  him  to  learn ;  how  he  was  taught  there 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


279 


to  steer  and  reef,  to  manage  a  canoe,  to  speak  Visayan, 
and  the  better  to  know  his  own  country.  “God  can 
send  you  your  fortune,”  he  adds,  “even  amidst  the 
persecutions  of  your  friends !” 

In  this  letter  he  dwells  with  a  kind  of  delight  on  his 
exacting  labors  in  philology,  of  his  studies  in  Tagalog 
and  his  Tagalog  grammar,  which  he  had  almost  com¬ 
pleted.  It  is  plainly  to  be  seen  that  his  activities  kept 
him  from  nostalgia,  as  his  captivity  from  the  turmoil 
of  his  years  in  the  noisy  and  bitter  world ;  and  now  he 
was  happily  married ! 

But  man  is  not  so  easily  separated  from  his  Nemesis. 
Of  a  sudden  all  this  house  of  content  fell  in  ruins  about 
him. 

All  this  time  he  was  maintaining  his  correspondence 
with  his  friends,  the  European  scientists,  and  particu¬ 
larly  with  Hr.  Blumentritt,1  the  closest  and  most  sym¬ 
pathetic  of  his  intellectual  allies.  Early  in  1896  a  let¬ 
ter  from  Dr.  Blumentritt  told  him  of  the  sad  condition 
of  the  hospitals  in  Cuba.  Yellow  fever  was  raging  in 
the  Island,  and  there  were  not  nearly  enough 
physicians  to  meet  the  emergency.  No  such  report 
could  be  made  to  Rizal  without  awakening  in  him  his 
sympathy  and  instinctive  impulse  to  help  whomsoever 
might  be  in  distress.  He  wrote  to  the  governor-gen¬ 
eral  offering  to  go  to  Cuba  as  a  volunteer  physician  in 
the  government  hospitals.  There  was  a  new  governor- 
general  now;  Despujol  had  ended  his  clouded  career 
and  gone  home.  Governor-General  Blanco  accepted 
Rizal ’s  offer,  and  on  August  1,  1896,  the  exile  sailed 

1  Dr.  Blumentritt  had  been  so  resentful  of  the  injustice  of  which  Rizal 
was  a  victim  that  he  had  endeavored  to  have  the  German  Government 
protest  against  Rizal  Js  deportation.  Retana,  p.  316. 


280 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


from  Dapitan  for  Manila.  With  him  went  Mrs.  Rizal 
and  his  little  niece. 

Even  as  a  volunteer  surgeon  in  the  yellow  fever  hos¬ 
pitals  he  was  nominally  to  be  a  prisoner  always ;  hence 
he  must  go  to  Cuba  by  way  of  Spain  and  under  the 
Spanish  flag;  otherwise  Spanish  sovereignty  would 
lapse  and  he  might  escape  from  its  power.  He  planned 
to  reach  Manila  in  time  to  take  the  next  mail-boat,  the 
Isla  de  Luzon,  for  Barcelona,  where  he  was  to  trans¬ 
ship  for  Cuba.  Mrs.  Rizal  was  to  reside  in  his  absence 
with  his  relatives  at  Binan  or  in  Manila.  But  the 
steamer  that  took  him  from  Dapitan  made  but  a  slow 
voyage.  He  had  time  to  attend  en  route  a  dinner  in 
his  honor  at  Dumaguete,  and  to  perform  an  operation 
on  the  eyes  of  a  patient  at  Cebu.  He  reached  Manila 
a  few  hours  after  the  Isla  de  Luzon  had  sailed.  Nearly 
a  month  must  elapse  before  another  steamer  would 
start  for  Barcelona.  Meantime  he  was  detained  on 
the  Spanish  cruiser  Castilla,  a  beautiful  vessel  that 
two  years  later  lay  at  the  bottom  of  Manila  Bay 
riddled  with  American  .shells.  But  his  confinement 
seems  to  have  been  easy.  In  a  few  days  the  officers 
were  his  friends.  The  captain  repeatedly  invited  mem¬ 
bers  of  his  family  to  dine  with  him  on  board.  Mrs. 
Rizal  came  to  see  him,  and  so  did  former  pupils  of  his 
that  had  drifted  from  Dapitan  up  to  Manila.  He  wrote 
letters  to  his  family,  including  one  of  great  tenderness 
to  his  mother,  in  which  he  included  loving  messages  to 
all  the  household  at  Los  Banos.1 

The  captain  of  the  Castilla  was  one  of  many  Span¬ 
iards  that  counterpoised  the  grim  tale  of  his  usual 

1Eetana  prints  this  at  p.  349. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


281 


treatment  under  their  flag.  Governor-General  Ramon 
Blanco,  still  remembered  in  the  islands  for  his  kindly, 
gentle  ways,  was  another.  He  furnished  Rizal  with 
letters  of  recommendation  to  high  Spanish  officers  in 
Spain  and  in  Cuba.  One  of  these  to  General  Azcar- 
raga,  Spanish  minister  of  war,  was  as  follows : 1 

Manila,  August  30,  1896. 
Esteemed  General  and  Distinguished  Friend : 

I  recommend  to  you  with  genuine  interest  Dr.  Jose  Rizal, 
who  is  leaving  for  the  Peninsula  to  place  himself  at  the  dis¬ 
posal  of  the  government  as  volunteer  army  surgeon  to  Cuba. 
During  the  four  years  of  his  exile  at  Dapitan  he  has  conducted 
himself  in  the  most  exemplary  manner,  and  he  is,  in  my  opin¬ 
ion,  the  more  worthy  of  praise  and  consideration  in  that  he  is 
in  no  way  connected  with  the  extravagant  attempts  we  are 
now  deploring,  neither  those  of  conspirators  nor  of  the  secret 
societies  that  have  been  formed. 

I  have  the  pleasure  to  reassure  you  of  my  high  esteem,  and 
remain 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  comrade 

Ramon  Blanco. 

On  September  3,  the  next  mail-steamer,  the  Isla  de 
Panay,  departed  for  Barcelona,  with  Rizal  as  a  kind 
of  self-watched  prisoner,  guarded  by  his  parole  and 
not  otherwise ;  for  here  as  before  it  is  to  be  remarked 
as  one  of  the  curiosities  of  this  story  that  however  his 
enemies  in  the  Government  might  hate  him  they 
seemed  to  have  full  confidence  in  his  word  of  honor. 

But  while  he  was  still  waiting  on  the  Castilla  in  the 
harbor  disaster  had  begun  to  ripen  for  him. 

1Retana,  pp.  347-348. 


282 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


The  whole  Katipunan  conspiracy  was  laid  bare  to 
the  Government. 

According  to  the  accepted  story,  on  the  night  of 
August  19,  the  mother  superior  of  a  convent-school  at 
Tondo  burst  upon  the  parish  priest  at  his  house  with 
information  that  she  had  discovered  a  terrible  plot  to 
massacre  all  the  Spaniards  in  the  Islands.  A  brother 
of  one  of  her  pupils  was  a  member  of  the  Katipunan. 
Assessments  upon  members  of  the  order  had  now  be¬ 
come  frequent,  as  Bonifacio’s  preparations  drew  to  a 
head.  It  is  an  ancient  Filipino  custom  for  the  woman 
in  each  household  to  keep  the  purse  for  the  men.  This 
young  man’s  treasurer  was  his  sister.  Of  late  he  had 
been  coming  to  her  so  often  for  funds  that  she  insisted 
upon  knowing  what  he  wanted  the  money  for.  Then 
little  by  little  she  wormed  his  secret  from  him  and  fled 
with  it  to  the  mother  superior,  who  took  it  to  the 
padre. 

Father  Gil  seems  to  have  made  one  leap  with  the 
news  to  the  Civil  Guard,  who  arrested  the  girl’s 
brother,  forced  a  confession  from  him  (probably  with 
tortures),  and,  taking  the  priest  in  tow,  went  to  the 
place  that  the  youth  had  said  was  the  printing-office 
of  the  Katipunan.  There  they  found,  or  said  they 
found,  incriminating  documents  that  revealed  the  plot.1 

Or  some  plot.  At  the  best  of  times,  as  we  have 
seen,  hysteria  in  the  governing  class  of  Manila  slept 
on  a  hair-trigger,  and,  being  once  awakened,  offered  a 
credulity  more  than  childlike  to  the  most  grotesque 
creations  of  the  most  unhealthy  imagination.  On 
this  occasion  its  manifestations  were  of  the  worst. 

1  Derbyshire,  p.  xii. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


283 


Such  wild  tales  as  flew  about  the  city  in  those  days, 
and  had  the  approval  of  grave  men  that  must  have 
known  better,  were  fit  only  for  a  group  of  children  tell¬ 
ing  ghost-stories  in  the  dark.  That  in  the  middle  of 
the  night  armed  bands  of  ferocious,  horrible  natives 
were  to  steal  upon  the  innocent  repose  of  every  white 
person  and  slit  his  throat  from  ear  to  ear  as  he  slept, 
was  the  least  terrifying  of  these  rumors,  and  the 
earliest  fruitage  of  an  aroused  and  exotic  fancy. 
Curiously  enough,  it  had  no  merit  in  originality,  but 
was  wan  and  hoary  with  age;  for  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  at  every  revolt  of  the  overtaxed  natives,  it 
had  been  brought  out  and  paraded.  It  even  persisted 
to  a  later  day  and  was  used  to  frighten  adult  Ameri¬ 
cans  that  might  have  been  deemed  beyond  such  melo¬ 
drama.  Certain  plans  required  American  dislike  of 
the  Filipinos,  and  thus  the  dislike  was  to  be  engen¬ 
dered.  In  the  present  instance,  it  can  hardly  be 
necessary  to  say  to  any  Filipino  reader  that  wholesale 
murder  was  no  part  of  Bonifacio’s  plans,  nor  any 
other  of  the  ogreish  and  blood-curdling  designs  that 
he  was  then  said  to  have  formed.  That  it  seems  need¬ 
ful  to  do  him  this  justice  before  another  public  is  only 
further  evidence  of  the  gross  misrepresentation  that 
interest  and  profits  have  made  of  all  this  chapter  of 
history. 

In  the  madness  of  panic  for  an  hour  or  a  day  men 
may  and  doubtless  will  do  strange  things;  the  abject 
terror  that  shattered  the  reasoning  faculties  of  the 
governing  class  in  Manila  seemed  only  to  increase  with 
time.  There  was  first  fear  let  loose  on  its  wild  charger 
and  then  its  immediate  reaction,  the  thirst  for  revenge. 


284 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


A  Spanish  mob  gathered  at  the  gates  of  Malacanan 
clamoring  for  instant  and  sanguinary  reprisals.  Rizal 
in  his  flight  across  the  American  continent  had  com¬ 
mented  sadly  on  the  lynching-parties  that  disgraced 
the  Southern  States  of  the  American  Union.  If  he 
had  been  in  Manila  in  those  days  he  would  have  seen 
the  same  spirit  displayed  by  the  mob  that  demanded 
his  own  death.  It  was  1872  come  again,  but  infinitely 
worse.1 

At  the  first  alarm,  Bonifacio  and  some  others  had 
made  their  escape;  he  was  now  in  the  country  pro¬ 
claiming  the  republic  and  raising  troops;  but  of  Fil¬ 
ipinos  that  still  remained  and  could  be  accused  of 
affiliation  with  his  hated  society  there  was  naturally 
no  lack,  and  in  a  few  hours  the  jails  were  overflowing 
and  the  executioner  overworked. 

With  almost  the  first  breath  of  this  midsummer 
madness,  his  enemies  thought  of  Rizal.  ‘ 4  Noli  Me 
Tangere”!  The  time  had  come  full  cycle  for  revenge 

1  Fernandez,  p.  244. 

“The  ordinary  prisons  were  more  than  full,  and  about  600  suspects 
were  confined  in  the  dungeons  of  Fort  Santiago  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Pasig  river,  where  a  frightful  tragedy  occurred.  The  dungeons  were 
overcrowded  .  .  .  the  Spanish  sergeant  on  duty  threw  his  rug  over  the 
only  light  and  ventilating  shaft  and  in  a  couple  of  days  carts  were  seen 
by  many  citizens  carrying  away  the  dead,  calculated  to  number  seventy. 
Provincial  governors  and  parish  priests  seemed  to  regard  it  as  a  duty  to 
supply  the  capital  with  batches  of  ‘suspects’  from  their  localities.  In 
Vigan,  where  nothing  had  occurred,  many  of  the  heads  of  the  best  fami¬ 
lies  and  moneyed  men  were  arrested  and  brought  to  Manila.  They  were 
bound  hand  and  foot  and  carried  like  packages  of  merchandise  in  the 
hold.  I  happened  to  be  on  the  quay  when  the  steamer  discharged  her 
living  freight  with  chains  and  hooks  to  haul  up  and  swing  out  the 
bodies  like  bales  of  hemp.  ...  I  was  informed  by  my  friend  the  Secre¬ 
tary  of  the  Military  Court  that  4,377  individuals  were  awaiting  trial  by 
court  martial.” — John  Foreman,  “The  Philippine  Islands,”  pp.  375, 
377. 

In  September  alone  thirty-seven  men  were  shot  after  summary  trials. 
Compare  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  LII,  p.  191. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


285 


for  that  flagrant  insult.  Days  passed,  and  the  object 
of  their  hatred  lay  there  almost  before  their  eyes,  the 
broad  yellow  and  red  of  Spain  flapping  over  him, 
wholly  at  the  mercy  of  the  Government  he  had  opposed. 
What  hindered  it  that  it  did  not  seize  him  and  thrust 
him  into  prison  with  the  rest  of  the  conspirators,  and 
so  to  Bagumbayan  and  an  end  with  him?  After  a 
time  the  impatient  clerical  party  concluded  that  the 
real  obstacle  was  Ramon  Blanco.  With  him  the  friars 
had  never  been  content;  after  the  uncovering  of  the 
Katipunan  they  accused  him  of  lack  of  energy  in  killing 
rebels,  and  a  feud  sprang  up  between  him  and  Arch¬ 
bishop  Nozaleda.1  By  common  report  he  was  now  at 
the  crisis  of  the  play  giving  to  the  world  an  illustration 
of  the  folly  of  nationalistic  generalizations.  All  Span¬ 
iards  were  supposed  to  hate  and  fear  Rizal;  Blanco, 
a  Spaniard,  would  not  deliver  Rizal  to  the  torturers 
because  he  knew  the  man  was  innocent,  and  he  was 
resolved  at  whatsoever  cost  to  stand  between  inno¬ 
cence  and  the  lynchers.2 

But  if  this  was  a  worthy  exhibition  of  virtue  in  Span¬ 
ish  character  it  led  in  the  end  to  only  another  demon¬ 
stration  of  the  power  of  the  friars.  They  worked  the 
cable  to  Madrid,  and  in  two  months  they  secured  the 
recall  of  Blanco  3  and  the  appointment  of  a  man  in  his 
place  that  had  no  scruples  about  judicial  murder  and 
much  thumb-screwing.  Polavieja  was  his  name.  The 
Philippines  were  not  likely  soon  to  forget  it. 

But  at  the  moment  the  victim  the  Interests  Tri¬ 
umphant  sought  was  slipping  out  of  their  hands.  They 

‘Foreman,  p.  376. 

3  Craig,  pp.  229-230;  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  LII,  p.  190. 

a  Foreman,  p.  376. 


286 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


must  have  reflected  with  inexpressible  rage  that  he 
would  have  been  helpless  if  they  had  but  allowed  him 
to  remain  in  Manila  instead  of  marooning  him  on  the 
shores  of  Dapitan.  Yet  there  was  a  chance  that  he 
could  be  clutched  and  brought  back  and  tom  to  pieces. 
Some  news  of  the  sirocco  of  rage  and  terror  that  had 
seized  Manila  reached  the  Isla  de  Panay.  One  of  his 
Filipino  fellow-passengers,  Pedro  P.  Roxas,  rich  but  a 
sturdy  advocate  of  Philippine  independence,  foresaw 
what  was  at  hand  and  quietly  stepped  ashore  at  Singa¬ 
pore,  where  he  was  under  the  protection  of  another 
flag.  Fervently  he  had  urged  Rizal  to  go  with  him, 
pointing  out  that  his  enemies  were  certain  to  take 
advantage  of  the  existing  panic  to  kill  him,  and  that 
as  he  was  virtually  a  political  fugitive  he  was  justified 
in  seeking  a  political  asylum.  He  pleaded  in  vain: 
Rizal  made  answer  that  he  had  done  no  wrong;  he 
would  not  flee.1  He  held  upon  his  way,  and  at  Suez 
the  great  claw  descended  upon  him.  On  a  cabled  order 
from  Manila  he  was  put  under  arrest,  and  thence  to 
Barcelona  he  was  a  prisoner.2 

The  instructions  were  that  he  was  to  be  returned 
as  speedily  as  possible  to  Manila  for  trial.  He  arrived 
at  Barcelona  in  the  morning.  A  steamer  was  to  sail 
for  Manila  that  afternoon.  Nevertheless,  for  the  few 
hours  he  must  stay  in  Barcelona  he  was  thrust  into 
prison,  the  sudden  reversal  of  the  confidence  with 
which  he  had  before  been  treated  indicating  plainly 
enough  to  the  initiated  which  party  was  now  in  control 
at  Manila.  By  a  strange  turn  of  fate,  the  Spanish 

1  Retana,  p.  351.  “No!  Profugo?  No!  Me  declararian  complice  del 
levantamiento !  ’  ’ 

a  Craig,  p.  231;  Derbyshire,  p.  xliii. 


THE  KATIPUNAN 


287 


commandant  at  Barcelona  was  that  same  Despujol 
that  had  so  basely  decoyed  him  from  Hong-Kong  into 
Spanish  power  and  but  for  whom  he  might  have  been 
at  that  moment  safe  beyond  Spanish  clutches.  Des¬ 
pujol  had  the  hardihood  to  call  upon  the  man  whose 
life  he  had  sold.  Rizal  received  him  with  the  toler¬ 
ant  spirit  that  was  so  marked  in  his  character,  for  it 
is  not  recorded  of  him  anywhere  that  he  uttered  so 
much  as  one  reproach  against  those  that  had  wronged 
him;  and  Despujol  seems  to  have  felt  something  like 
contrition  as  he  viewed  the  wreck  he  had  made  of  a  life 
so  unusual. 

That  afternoon  the  steamer  left  for  Manila  with 
Rizal  a  prisoner  on  it. 

It  is  like  a  story  of  overruling  destiny.  News  of  the 
arrest,  by  this  device,  of  the  most  illustrious  savant 
in  all  the  Spanish  dominions,  one  of  the  foremost  scien¬ 
tists  of  the  times,  had  been  telegraphed  about  the 
world  and  stirred  a  general  resentment.  All  men  that 
understood  colonial  Spain  looked  with  gloomiest  fore¬ 
bodings  upon  his  probable  doom,  now  that  he  was 
fanged  by  that  medieval  dragon.  A  plan  was  formed 
to  rescue  him  when  the  steamer  should  reach  Singa¬ 
pore  by  suing  out  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  so 
snatching  him  from  Spanish  authority.1  So  slender 
are  the  chances  of  fate  that  a  mere  decoration  on  a 
flag  brought  to  naught  this  benevolent  design.  The 
steamer  was  the  ordinary  packet-boat,  but  on  this 
occasion  she  was  carrying  a  few  troops  to  the  Philip¬ 
pines.  Being  deemed,  therefore,  on  this  voyage  to 

1  His  old  friend.  Dr.  Antonio  Maria  Regidor  of  London,  was  the 
author  of  this  plan.  It  went  so  far  that  all  the  papers  were  drawn  up 
and  signed.  Retana  prints  them  at  pp.  352-353. 


I 


288 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


have  the  status  of  a  transport,  she  hoisted  the  Spanish 
royal  ensign,  and  against  that  emblem  the  kindly  plot¬ 
ters  felt  they  had  no  right  to  proceed.  Government 
vessels  are  not  subject  to  the  authority  of  other 
nations  whose  ports  they  chance  to  enter. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


“l  CAME  FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE” 

IT  was  November  3,  1896,  when  Rizal,  heavily 
guarded,  passed  again  through  the  dark  gateway 
of  Fort  Santiago,  whence  he  had  issued  four  years 
before  to  go  to  Dapitan.  Now  his  enemies  had  him 
wholly  in  their  power;  he  was  dragged  to  earth  at 
last.  Yet  for  a  time  they  were  puzzled  how  to  proceed 
with  him.  Dull  as  they  were  and  remote  from  the 
highways  of  European  thought,  they  were  not  unaware 
that  the  eyes  of  a  scornful  world  were  upon  them. 
Therefore  they  could  not,  as  in  the  cases  of  so  many 
“unvalued  men,”  shoot  him  at  sunrise  on  a  dunghill. 
Some  pretense  of  legality  must  be  followed;  there 
must  be  regard  to  decency. 

But  of  anything  civilized  men  could  call  evidence 
against  him  or  of  reason  for  anything  such  men  could 
call  a  trial  there  was  no  trace  nor  suggestion.  Say 
that  the  Katipunan  was  all  that  hysteria  described  it ; 
not  a  scrap  of  paper  connected  Rizal  with  it.  He  was 
not  a  member;  he  had  expressly  disapproved  of  its 
aims;  he  had  been  an  exile  in  Dapitan  while  it  was 
being  formed.  How  then?  And  what  then?  In  all 
such  dilemmas  it  had  been  the  practice  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  of  the  Philippines  to  resort  to  those  medieval 
precedents  that  best  befitted  the  theory  upon  which  its 

authority  was  based.  Where  required  testimony  was 

289 


290 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


not  to  be  stumbled  upon  it  was  usually  to  be  produced 
with  the  thumb-screw  and  the  lash;  to  torture  some¬ 
body  into  perjury  was  the  sovereign  specific.  Upon 
these  promptings  the  authorities  seized  Paciano, 
RizaPs  brother,  and  exercised  upon  him  their  most 
recondite  arts.  To  his  left  hand  was  fitted  the  terrible 
screw ;  at  his  right  were  pen  and  ink  and  a  statement 
that  his  brother  had  part  in  the  Katipunan  conspiracy. 
Then  the  screw  was  applied  until  the  victim  fainted 
with  the  pain.  But  he  would  not  sign;  no,  not  for  all 
the  ingenious  torments  of  their  devising.  There  was 
iron  in  the  Rizal  blood ;  father  and  mother  had  shown 
it.  When  the  mother  had  started  to  trudge  around 
Laguna  de  Bay,  when  the  father  had  refused  to  sub¬ 
mit  to  the  tyranny  of  the  friar’s  agent,  when  Jose  had 
dared  to  write  ‘  ‘  Noli  Me  Tange  re,”  they  had  vindi¬ 
cated  their  tribal  inheritance.  Paciano  was  all  of  the 
same  stern  race.  Day  and  night  the  horror  continued ; 
he  was  trussed  up  until  he  fainted  again,  and  then  was 
revived  with  stimulants  for  new  sufferings,  and  still 
he  would  not  sign.  Then  his  mind  began  to  wander; 
•  he  was  plainly  unable  to  sign  anything,  and  the  tor¬ 
turers  released  him.1 

Meantime  Jose,  though  undeceived  as  to  his  prob¬ 
able  fate,  fought  for  his  life  with  the  resolute  courage 
of  his  kin.  He  knew  there  was  no  evidence  against 
him,  that  before  no  court  with  the  least  respect  for 
justice  could  he  be  convicted.  But  he  determined  to 
make  that  conviction  as  difficult  as  possible  and  as 
shameful  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  From  his  prison- 
house  he  issued  this  address : 

1  Craig,  p.  234. 


4 ‘FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  291 


My  countrymen: 

On  my  return  from  Spain  I  learned  that  my  name  had  been 
in  use,  among  some  who  were  in  arms,  as  a  war-cry.  The  news 
came  as  a  painful  surprise,  but,  believing  the  incident  to  be 
closed,  I  kept  silence  over  what  seemed  to  be  irremediable.  I 
now  notice  indications  that  the  disturbances  are  continuing, 
and  lest  any  persons,  in  good  faith  or  bad,  should  avail  them¬ 
selves  of  the  use  of  my  name,  to  stop  such  an  abuse  and  to 
undeceive  the  unwary  I  hasten  to  address  you  these  lines  and 
make  known  the  truth. 

From  the  very  beginning,  when  I  first  had  notice  of  what 
was  being  planned,  I  opposed  it,  fought  it,  and  demonstrated 
its  absolute  impossibility.  This  is  the  fact,  and  witnesses  to 
my  words  are  still  living.  I  was  convinced  that  the  scheme 
was  utterly  absurd,  and,  what  was  worse,  would  bring  great 
suffering. 

I  did  even  more.  When  later,  against  my  advice,  the  move¬ 
ment  materialized,  of  my  own  accord  I  offered  not  alone  my 
good  offices,  but  my  very  life,  and  even  my  name,  to  be  used 
in  whatever  way  might  seem  best,  toward  stifling  the  rebellion ; 
for,  convinced  of  the  ills  which  it  would  bring,  I  considered 
myself  fortunate  if,  at  any  sacrifice,  I  could  prevent  such 
useless  misfortunes.  This  is  equally  of  record.  My  country¬ 
men,  I  have  given  proofs  that  I  am  one  most  anxious  for 
liberties  for  our  country,  and  I  am  still  desirous  of  them. 
But  I  place  as  a  prior  condition  the  education  of  the  people, 
that  by  means  of  instruction  and  industry  our  country  may 
have  an  individuality  of  its  own  and  make  itself  worthy  of 
these  liberties.  I  have  recommended  in  my  writings  the  study 
of  the  civic  virtues,  without  which  there  is  no  redemption.  I 
have  written  also  (and  I  repeat  my  words)  that  reforms,  to  be 
beneficial,  must  come  from  above,  that  those  which  come  from 
below  are  irregularly  gained  and  uncertain. 

Holding  these  ideas,  I  cannot  do  less  than  condemn,  and  I 


292 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


do  condemn  this  uprising — as  absurd,  savage,  and  plotted  be¬ 
hind  my  back — which  dishonors  us  Filipinos  and  discredits 
those  that  could  plead  our  cause.  I  abhor  its  criminal  methods 
and  disclaim  all  part  in  it,  pitying  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  the  unwary  that  have  been  deceived  into  taking  part 
in  it. 

Return  then  to  your  homes,  and  may  God  pardon  those  that 
have  wrought  in  bad  faith ! 1 

Jostf  Rizal. 

Fort  Santiago,  December  15,  1896. 

Still  remained  for  his  enemies  the  necessity  of  a 
semblance  of  charges  upon  which  might  be  based  the 
semblance  of  a  trial.  As  a  move  of  obvious  despera¬ 
tion  they  now  fell  back  upon  the  fantasy  that  La  Liga 
Filipina  was  an  illegal  body  and  upon  the  precarious 
assertion  that  even  if  he  had  no  connection  with  the 
Katipunan  it  had  been  formed  as  a  result  of  his  teach¬ 
ings.  Upon  these  grounds  and  only  these  his  life  was 
to  be  sought ;  the  first  wholly  untrue,  the  other  tenuous 
and  fraught  with  grave  danger  to  the  existence  of  any 
system  of  justice.  As  for  La  Liga  Filipina,  that  was 
as  seditious  as  an  average  board  of  trade,  and  as 
secret ;  it  had  no  purposes  but  economic  improvement 
and  Filipino  union.  But  the  other  charge  was  a  dif¬ 
ferent  matter.  If  it  could  be  held  that  RizaPs  teach¬ 
ings  were  such  that  they  instigated  an  uprising  he  had 
always  opposed,  then  any  but  a  paralyzed  dumb  man 
could  be  held  responsible  for  anything  that  happened 
anywhere.  Suppose,  for  instance,  a  British  news¬ 
paper  to  criticize  severely  the  British  prime  minister, 
and  the  next  day  a  man  attempt  the  assassination  of 

1  Dr.  Craig ’s  translation. 


4 ‘FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  293 


that  minister.  Who  is  to  say,  if  this  doctrine  be  sound, 
that  the  newspaper  did  not  instigate  the  murderous 
attempt  ?  It  is  apparent  that  if  such  a  view  were  ever 
deemed  valid  an  end  would  come  to  all  free  discussion 
or  the  pretense  of  a  free  press;  no  journal  would  dare 
to  have  an  opinion  about  anything  but  the  weather. 

The  inhibition  would  never  stop  with  the  press ;  the 
most  ordinary  and  the  most  useful  activities  of  organ¬ 
ized  society  would  be  put  into  jeopardy.  Suppose,  for 
instance,  Rizal  had  opposed  and  denounced  vivisection, 
and  a  weak-minded  man  anywhere,  maddened  by  the 
loss  of  his  pet  dog,  should  assault  the  physician  that 
had  cut  it  to  pieces.  Who  could  say  that  Rizal  under 
this  doctrine  was  not  the  guilty  assailant?  Even  sup¬ 
posing  the  man  that  did  the  deed  never  to  have  read 
Rizal  nor  heard  of  him,  RizaPs  influence  might  have 
been  transmitted  through  many  persons  and  still  be 
his.  It  is  evident  that  at  once  we  plunge  into  limitless 
possibilities  for  oppression  and  wrong.  Suppose  an 
American  reformer  to  denounce  some  official  grafter 
and  a  fanatic  to  shoot  that  grafter.  The  reformer 
might  be  hanged,  and  the  assassin  go  free. 

Of  all  places  in  the  civilized  circuit  the  Philippine 
Islands  were  then  the  most  perilous  in  which  to  intro¬ 
duce  such  a  theory.  In  the  Philippines  an  evil  oli¬ 
garchy  maintained  itself  by  terrorizing  the  popula¬ 
tion.  Before  its  need  and  greed,  justice  was  at  best 
farcical.  To  admit  that  any  man  that  criticized  its 
methods  iftight  be  held  responsible  for  the  acts  of  any 
revolutionist,  murderer,  or  lunatic  whatsoever  was  to 
place  in  the  hands  of  the  oligarchy  the  last  and  worst 
of  weapons.  It  would  need  nothing  else  to  render 


294 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


unassailable  and  unlimited  its  already  despotic  power. 
The  courts  would  be  a  hangman’s  noose. 

Yet  on  such  preposterous  grounds  and  none  other 
the  terrible  travesty  of  justice  was  now  urged  along. 
It  is  likely  that  since  the  days  of  Caiaphas  has  been  no 
such  desperate  hunting  for  testimony  against  inno¬ 
cence.  ‘‘This  man  spake  blasphemy,”  cried  the  high 
priests,  and,  when  they  could  find  no  confirmation  of 
the  charge,  twisted  to  a  desired  meaning  the  most 
casual  utterance,  the  cross  being  made  ready  in  ad¬ 
vance.  The  proceedings  were  as  illegal  as  unjust. 
Supposing  the  offenses  charged  to  have  been  com¬ 
mitted,  they  were  under  the  civil  law  of  the  Islands. 
The  civil  law  and  the  civil  courts  were  brushed  aside 
lest  even  in  the  Philippines  they  might  fail  of  legalized 
murder,  or  halt  it ;  and  the  proceedings  were  held  by 
court  martial. 

Before  this  tribunal,  organized  to  slay,  Rizal  was 
brought  bound,  his  elbows  drawn  back  with  cords  so 
as  almost  to  touch.  Thus  he  must  sit  throughout  each 
session,  though  the  notion  that  he  might  try  to  escape 
or  to  assault  any  one  was  obviously  fantastic,  for  he 
was  heavily  guarded  and  the  room  was  filled  with 
soldiery.  To  a  gratuitous  malice  all  this  must  bo 
ascribed,  the  malice  of  immature  or  perverted  minds. 
The  torments  he  endured  from  aching  muscles  and 
constricted  arteries  as  thus  he  sat  grew  almost  intoler¬ 
able  while  the  long  sessions  dragged  on,  but  it  is  not 
recorded  that  the  victim  made  complaint.  He  was  not 
allowed  an  attorney,  but  a  list  of  army  officers  was 
spread  before  him  from  among  whom  he  might  select 
counsel — so  called.  He  found  in  the  list  a  name  that 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  295 


had  a  friendly  sound  in  his  ear.  It  was  de  Andrade, 
and  proved  to  be  borne  by  a  brother  of  the  young  army 
officer  that  had  been  assigned  to  watch  him  and  had 
ended  by  becoming  his  warm  admirer  and  charmed 
companion  on  so  many  walks  in  1887.  But  the  choice 
of  a  counsel  was  mere  formality.  Luis  de  Andrade  did 
all  he  could  to  win  justice  for  the  prisoner,  but  before 
such  a  court  he  might  as  well  have  used  question  with 
a  wolf.1 

There  was  no  taking  of  testimony  in  any  sense  that 
civilized  nations  have  of  that  term.  A  few  terrified 
Filipinos  were  put  upon  the  stand,  and  answers  were 
extracted  from  their  lips  to  carefully  prepared  ques¬ 
tions  ;  but  cross-examination  was  not  allowed,  and  the 
value  of  their  admissions  was  nothing.  The  judge- 
advocate  denounced  Rizal  as  a  traitor  and  an  enemy 
to  Spain.  Extracts  were  read  from  his  writings  that 
it  was  pretended  had  encouraged  the  existing  revolt. 
The  Christmas  holidays  intervened  while  the  ghastly 
processes  of  slaughter  were  still  incomplete.  On 
December  29  the  court  found  him  guilty  and  sentenced 
him  to  be  shot  within  twenty-four  hours. 

To  this  and  nothing  else  he  had  looked  forward  from 
the  beginning  of  the  hearing.  Some  nights  before  the 
verdict,  knowing  well  what  it  would  be,  he  had  written 
in  his  cell  by  the  light  of  his  little  alcohol  lamp  his  fare¬ 
well  to  his  country,  his  family,  and  his  friends.  It  is 
that  poem  now  become  the  national  classic  of  the  Phil¬ 
ippines,  the  beautiful  and  tender  elegy  that  he  called 
“My  Last  Farewell.”  On  the  last  night  he  folded  the 
manuscript  and  hid  it  in  the  bowl  of  the  lamp. 

1  Craig,  p.  237, 


296 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Of  this  marvelous  production,  almost  unequaled  in 
literature  for  its  pathetic  sincerity  and  noble  feeling, 
there  exist  in  English  two  versions.1  That  which 
seems  the  more  adequately  to  express  the  thought  of 
the  original  we  offer  here,  and  his  must  be  a  strangely 
indurated  heart  that  can  read  it  without  emotion : 

Land  I  adore,  farewell!  thou  land  of  the  southern  sun’s 
choosing. 

Pearl  of  the  Orient  seas !  our  forfeited  Garden  of  Eden, 
Joyous,  I  yield  up  for  thee  my  sad  life,  and  were  it  far 
brighter, 

Young,  or  rose-strewn,  for  thee  and  thy  happiness  still  would 
I  give  it. 

Far  afield,  in  the  din  and  rush  of  maddening  battle, 

Others  have  laid  down  their  lives,  nor  wavered,  nor  paused, 
in  the  giving. 

What  matters  way  or  place — the  cypress,  the  lily,  the  laurel, 
Gibbet  or  open  field,  the  sword  or  inglorious  torture — 

When  ’tis  the  hearth  and  the  country  that  call  for  the  life’s 
immolation  ? 

Dawn’s  faint  lights  bar  the  east;  she  smiles  through  the  cowl 
of  the  darkness, 

Just  as  I  die.  .  .  . 

Vision  I  followed  from  afar,  desire  that  spurred  on  and 
consumed  me! 

1  The  other,  in  rime,  excellently  done  by  Mr.  Derbyshire,  will  be  found 
in  the  Appendix.  The  blank  verse  translation  printed  above  was  once 
heard  in  the  American  House  of  Representatives  and  gave  rise  to  a 
memorable  scene.  A  debate  was  on  concerning  Philippine  independence. 
In  a  speech  of  great  power  and  eloquence,  Representative  Cooper,  of 
Wisconsin,  supported  the  plea  of  the  Filipinos.  In  the  course  of  his 
argument  he  told  how  he  had  indifferently  picked  up  at  a  book-stall  a 
book  containing  the  farewell  poem  of  Jose  Rizal,  of  whom  he  knew  next 
to  nothing;  how  he  had  read  it  and  been  so  seized  with  its  beauty  that 
he  had  bought  the  book  and  committed  the  poem  to  memory.  Then  he 
recited  it.  After  the  first  few  lines  a  profound  silence  fell  upon  the 
chamber,  unbroken  to  the  end.  As  Mr.  Cooper  uttered  the  last  great 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  297 


Greeting!  my  parting  soul  cries,  and  greeting  again!  0  my 
country ! 

Beautiful  is  it  to  fall,  that  the  vision  may  rise  to  fulfilment 
Giving  my  life  for  thy  life,  and  breathing  thine  air  in  the 
death-throe ; 

Sweet  to  eternally  sleep  in  thy  lap,  0  land  of  enchantment ! 

If  in  the  deep  rich  grass  that  covers  my  rest  in  thy  bosom, 
Some  day  thou  seest  upspring  a  lowly  tremulous  blossom, 

Lay  there  thy  lips — ’t  is  my  soul!  .  .  . 

And  if  at  eventide  a  soul  for  my  tranquil  sleep  prayeth, 

Pray  thou,  O  my  fatherland !  for  my  peaceful  reposing ; 

Pray  for  those  who  go  down  to  death  through  unspeakable 
torments ; 

Pray  for  those  who  remain  to  suffer  torture  in  prison ; 

Pray  for  the  bitter  grief  of  our  mothers,  our  wives,  our 
orphans ; 

Oh,  pray,  too,  for  thyself,  on  the  way  to  thy  final  redemption ! 

When  our  still  dwelling-place  wraps  night’s  dusky  mantle 
about  her, 

Leaving  the  dead  alone  with  the  dead,  to  watch  till  the 
morning, 

Break  not  our  rest,  and  seek  not  to  lay  death’s  mystery  open. 
If  now  and  then  thou  shouldst  hear  the  string  of  a  lute  or  a 
zithem, 

Mine  is  the  hand,  dear  country,  and  mine  is  the  voice  that  is 
singing. 

When  my  tomb,  that  all  have  forgot,  no  cross  nor  stone 
marketh, 

line  in  this  wonderful  composition,  there  was  an  exhibition  of  emotion 
unwonted  in  that  place.  One  of  the  oldest  and  most  famous  representa¬ 
tives,  little  given  to  sentiment,  afterward  admitted  that  the  poem  and 
Mr.  Cooper’s  speech  had  converted  him  to  the  Philippine  cause.  He 
said  that  a  race  capable  of  producing  a  man  of  such  character  and 
attainments  was  a  race  entitled  to  and  capable  of  its  freedom. 


298  THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 

There  let  the  laborer  guide  his  plow,  there  cleave  the  earth 
open. 

So  shall  my  ashes  at  last  be  one  with  thy  hills  and  thy 
valleys. 

Little  ’t  will  matter,  then,  my  country,  that  thou  shouldst 
forget  me ! 

I  shall  be  air  in  thy  streets,  and  I  shall  be  space  in  thy 
meadows ; 

I  shall  be  vibrant  speech  in  thine  ears,  shall  be  fragrance  and 
color, 

Light  and  shout,  and  loved  song,  for  ever  repeating  my 
message. 

Idolized  fatherland,  thou  crown  and  deep  of  my  sorrows, 
Lovely  Philippine  Isles,  once  again  adieu !  I  am  leaving 
All  with  thee — my  friends,  my  love.  Where  I  go  are  no 
tyrants ; 

There  one  dies  not  for  the  cause  of  his  faith ;  there  God  is  the 
ruler. 

Farewell,  father  and  mother  and  brother,  dear  friends  of  the 
fireside ! 

Thankful  ye  should  be  for  me  that  I  rest  at  the  end  of  the 
long  day. 

Farewell,  sweet,  from  the  stranger’s  land — my  joy  and  my 
comrade ! 

Farewell,  dear  ones,  farewell!  To  die  is  to  rest  from  our 
labors ! 

Before  his  murderers,  before  the  jeers  and  savage 
exultations  of  the  well  dressed  mob  clamoring  for  his 
death,  throughout  the  hearing,  at  the  moment  of  the 
unjust  verdict,  he  had  maintained  the  same  attitude 
of  perfect  serenity  described  as  wonderful  by  all  that 
observed  it.  Other  condemned  men  have  simulated 
this  self-possession;  this  man  had  it  in  truth  and  not 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  299 


in  seeming.  Calmly  he  heard  his  condemnation,  calmly 
he  reentered  the  prison  where  for  his  last  night  on 
earth  quarters  had  been  made  for  him  in  the  chapel. 
A  newspaper  reporter  came  to  interview  him.  He  was 
like  a  prosperous  and  well  bred  host  entertaining  a 
cultured  friend;1  no  eyes,  however  searching,  could 
discover  a  joint  in  that  perfect  armor  of  the  soul  sus¬ 
tained  and  possessed,  without  a  tremor  and  without  a 
gloomy  thought.  To  the  reporter  and  to  others  that 
had  watched  him  this  bearing  seemed  not  bravado  but 
something  mystical  and  inexplicable,  but  it  seemed  so 
only  because  the  source  of  it  was  beyond  their  under¬ 
standing.  He  was  calm  because  he  had  long  before  in 
effect  given  his  life  to  this  cause  and  the  shooting  of 
the  next  day  would  be  only  the  last  incident  in  a  sacri¬ 
fice  already  made.  Of  this  there  is  every  indication. 
What  men  call  the  joy  of  living  had  since  his  youth 
meant  to  him  the  joy  of  serving  Filipinas.  He  seems 
to  have  had  since  the  day  of  his  exile  to  Dapitan  a 
feeling  that  in  other  ways  his  service  2  was  at  an  end, 
but  there  remained  the  service  of  his  death.  All  the 
hard  tests  of  life  had  left  him  unshaken  and  uncor¬ 
rupted,  a  man  truly  without  fear  and  without  reproach. 
With  the  same  faultless  and  unpretentious  courage  he 
walked  forward  to  meet  the  end. 

As  was  to  have  been  expected  in  the  conditions 
attending  his  fate,  the  power  that  had  dragged  him 
down  with  so  much  of  trickery  and  deceit  attempted  to 
soil  with  other  deceit  the  name  he  should  leave  to  his 
countrymen.  To  the  newspaper  reporter  he  said  that 

xRetana,  p.  417.  The  newspaper  represented  was  the  “ Herald’ ’  of 
Madrid. 

2  His  letters  show  this. 


300 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


“Noli  Me  Tangere”  had  been  much  misunderstood 
because  the  authorities  had  selected  from  it  only  pas¬ 
sages  that  seemed  to  indicate  sacrilegious  or  seditious 
purpose,  whereas  when  read  in  their  proper  places 
with  the  context  they  had  no  such  appearance.  This 
statement  was  so  distorted  as  to  appear  as  an  expres¬ 
sion  of  regret  that  he  had  written  the  book.  When  he 
said  that  the  Republicans  in  Spain  had  mistaken  their 
strength  and  their  opportunities,  this  was  distorted 
into  a  petulant  charge  that  the  Spanish  Republicans 
had  been  the  cause  of  all  his  troubles.  When  he  spoke 
with  characteristic  modesty  of  his  own  work  as  feeble 
and  of  small  avail,  the  remark  was  twisted  into  a 
dubiety  of  his  basic  faith. 

Attempts  were  made  to  wrest  from  him  something 
that  could  be  called  a  retraction  of  his  political  opin¬ 
ions;  even  the  last  solemn  offices  of  the  church  were 
utilized  toward  an  end  so  base.  All  his  life  he  had 
remained  a  true  Catholic,1  despite  his  sharp  condem¬ 
nation  of  the  friars.  He  now  desired  to  partake  of  the 
holy  sacrament,  and  priests  were  sent  to  him.  What 
took  place  when  they  gathered  around  him  was  so  per¬ 
verted  that  no  man  may  feel  sure  he  has  the  truth  of 
the  story.  According  to  one  account  the  priests 

1  Craig,  p.  244. 

Mr.  Derbyshire  (p.  xlvi)  does  not  indorse  this  opinion,  and  Retana 
(p.  287)  recounts  a  discussion  between  Rizal  and  a  Jesuit  priest  in 
which  Rizal  seemed  to  repudiate  the  doctrine  of  the  eucharist.  But  Dr. 
Craig  came  to  the  conclusion  that  in  faith  Rizal  never  wavered  from  the 
foundation  principles  of  the  church.  Whosoever  reads  now  attentively 
the  passages  in  his  writings  that  seem  to  express  his  convictions  on  this 
subject  can  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  noble  and  exalted  piety 
that  breathes  through  them  and  is  not  likely  to  believe  that  this  could 
be  otherwise  than  sincere. 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  301 


refused  him  the  sacrament  until  they  should  satisfy 
themselves  of  his  orthodoxy,  and  a  long  examination 
followed.  They  demanded  a  signed  statement  affirming 
his  belief  in  revealed  religion.  He  readily  consented 
to  give  it;  he  could  have  given  it  truthfully  at  any 
time.  Of  this  affirmation  two  irreconcilable  versions 
were  subsequently  reported,  a  fact  that  dealing  with 
a  thing  so  simple  must  serve  to  discredit  both.  As  to 
one,  no  other  evidence  is  needed  than  its  style  and 
content  to  show  that  Rizal  never  wrote  it.  As  to  the 
other  reputed  statement,  opinions  differ;  reasonably, 
one  might  say,  since  there  is  extant  no  original  copy, 
and  no  one  now  pretends  to  have  seen  such  a  copy. 
The  style  in  the  second  statement  is  RizaPs  or  an 
imitation  of  his ;  the  expressions  in  it  are  in  line  with 
his  general  convictions ; 1  and  if  throughout  this  phase 
of  the  story  we  met  with  less  of  manifest  treachery 
and  lying  the  probable  authenticity  of  some  such 
declaration  might  well  be  admitted. 

On  the  basis  of  evidence  so  untrustworthy  the  tale 
was  fabricated  that  he  had  retracted  his  political 
views.  It  was  brazen  impudence  that  put  out  this 
fable  and  simple  credulity  that  believed  it.  Much  that 
happened  in  the  last  scenes  of  his  tragedy  is  and 
always  will  be  uncertain,  but  the  one  thing  about  which 
is  no  doubt  is  that  he  went  to  his  death  unshaken  in  his 
loyalty  to  the  great  causes  to  which  he  had  dedicated 
his  life  and  labors,  to  the  rights,  emancipation,  and 
progress  of  his  country. 

If  from  the  tangled  accounts  now  available  to  us  we 

1  Craig,  p.  244. 


302 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


wish  to  build  a  surmise,  it  is  likely  that  Rizal  affirmed 
his  religious  faith,  renounced  masonry,1  was  recon¬ 
ciled  to  the  church,  received  the  sacrament,  and  then 
had 2  performed  the  ecclesiastical  marriage  rites 

1  This  would  be  insisted  upon  first  of  all. 

2  The  obvious  lies  that  have  been  piled  high  over  all  these  matters 
must  fill  every  investigator  with  disgust.  The  friars  promptly  issued 
(from  Barcelona)  what  purported  to  be  a  circumstantial  account  of 
Rizal’s  last  hours.  Almost  every  statement  in  it  susceptible  of  any 
examination  has  been  shown  to  be  false,  or  impossible.  The  liars  have 
even  managed  to  make  doubtful  the  ecclesiastical  marriage  with 
Josephine.  They  said  that  the  record  of  it  was  in  Manila  Cathedral, 
but  it  is  not  and  never  has  been  discovered.  They  said  that  Rizal 
signed  in  a  book  of  devotions  his  full  acceptance  of  the  articles  of  faith 
and  gave  it  to  his  sister.  His  sister  afterward  could  not  recall  having 
seen  it  and  it  was  never  found.  They  said  that  he  was  fully  reconciled 
to  the  church,  but  his  burial  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  church’s 
rites. 

One  fact  about  the  matter  and  only  one  seems  reasonably  certain. 
If  Rizal  had  signed  any  document  that  could  have  been  of  the  slightest 
use  to  the  governing  Interests  it  would  have  been  exhibited  and  used  at 
that  time  so  perilous  to  Spain.  A  great  rebellion  was  on;  the  immediate 
impulse  to  it  was  resentment  against  the  ill  treatment  of  Rizal  and  the 
inspiration  of  freedom.  Anything  in  the  nature  of  a  retraction  from 
him  would  have  been  worth  to  the  Spanish  cause  more  than  the  strength 
of  many  brigades.  The  mysterious  document  he  was  alleged  to  have 
signed  as  mysteriously  disappeared.  The  friars  said  they  took  it  to  the 
Ateneo,  and  thence  sent  it  by  messenger  to  the  archbishop,  to  be  de¬ 
posited  in  the  archiepiscopal  records.  There  all  trace  of  it  was  lost — 
if  there  ever  was  such  a  paper.  It  was  for  Spain,  if  these  accounts  have 
any  truth,  the  most  valuable  thing  in  all  the  Philippines,  and  the  cun¬ 
ning  persons  that  had  (again  by  these  accounts)  produced  a  jewel  of 
such  price  immediately  allowed  it  to  slip  into  the  gutter.  Not  unless 
they  had  all  gone  mad. 

The  whole  subject,  which  might  well  be  considered  as  extraneous  to 
the  real  significance  of  Rizal’s  life  and  death,  was  revived  in  1920  by 
the  appearance  in  Barcelona  of  a  brochure  by  Gonzalo  M.  Pinana 
entitled  “Murio  el  Doctor  Rizal  Cristianamente?  ”  (Did  Doctor  Rizal 
Die  a  Christian?),  with  the  subtitle  of  “Reconstruction  of  the  Last 
Hours  of  his  Life:  a  Historical  Study.”  Unfortunately,  the  book 
renewed  a  futile  discussion  without  adding  a  line  to  the  available  infor¬ 
mation  about  it.  Mr.  Pinana  gathered  the  newspaper  reports  current  at 
the  time  of  Rizal’s  death,  used  the  statements  of  the  friars  already 
discredited,  and  reprinted  the  assertions  that  for  twenty-four  years  had 
been  made  on  one  side  and  repudiated  on  the  other.  He  satisfied  him¬ 
self  that  Rizal  died  a  Christian,  but  everybody  else  had  long  before  been 
satisfied  of  that  fact.  But  while  he  added  nothing  to  the  store  of  human 
wisdom  on  these  subjects,  Mr.  Pinana  reminds  us  of  an  incident  that  is 
well  worth  preserving.  Among  the  persons  moved  by  the  tragedy  to 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  303 


between  him  and  his  wife  that  he  had  so  desired  in 
vain  at  Dapitan.  Even  as  to  this  there  is  no  record, 
but  the  correlative  facts  are  strong.  To  his  mother 
and  sisters  he  now  said  the  last  farewell;  said  it  with 
the  calm  and  gentle  resignation  that  from  the  first  had 
marked  his  conduct.  Even  in  that  crux  of  his  suffer¬ 
ings  his  command  upon  himself  and  all  his  faculties 
seems  never  to  have  wavered.  He  knew  well  that  all 
his  effects  would  be  searched  and  any  papers  he  might 
leave  would  be  seized  and  destroyed ;  yet  he  desired  to 
give  to  his  countrymen  the  song  of  parting  he  had 
written  for  them.  At  the  interview  with  his  mother 
and  sisters  they  were  kept  separated  from  him  by  a 
space  of  some  feet  under  the  pretended  fear  that 
poison  might  be  passed  to  him  and  so  might  he  cheat 
revenge  of  blood-drops  for  which  it  thirsted.  To 
transmit  the  poem,  therefore,  was  difficult,  but  the 
resourceful  mind  of  Rizal  did  not  fail  him  now.  The 
little  alcohol  lamp  by  which  he  had  written  his  song 
and  read  and  studied  in  his  cell  had  been  the  gift  of  a 
friend  in  Europe.  In  the  Islands  it  was  something  of 
a  curiosity.  This  he  managed  to  bequeath  to  his  sister 
Trinidad  and  when  he  told  her  about  it  he  added 
quickly  in  English,  “There  is  something  inside.”  1 
Even  in  these  last  hours  efforts  were  made  by  his 
friends  to  rescue  him  from  the  jaws  that  had  opened 
to  rend  him.  Relatives  and  friends  besieged  the  gov- 

sympathy  with  the  condemned  man  was  the  attorney-general  of  the 
Philippines,  Senor  Castano,  who  said  to  him : 

“Rizal,  you  love  passionately  your  mother  and  your  country.  Both 
are  Catholic.  Do  you  not  think  it  will  be  very  hard  for  you  to  die 
outside  of  their  chosen  religion?  ’  ’  To  which  Rizal  replied : 

‘  ‘  Mr.  Attorney-General,  you  may  be  sure  that  I  have  no  intention  of 
closing  the  gates  of  eternity  upon  myself.”  Pinana,  p.  79. 

1  Craig,  p.  240. 


304 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


ernor-general ;  he  would  not  even  admit  them  to  his 
presence.  In  Spain  fervent  appeals  were  made  to  the 
National  Government.  All  scientific  and  sympathetic 
Europe  was  horror-stricken  at  the  impending  murder 
of  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  age.  There  is  a 
story  that  the  Spanish  prime  minister  wished  to  yield 
to  these  demands.  It  was  the  queen  regent  that  he 
found  implacable.  Something  in  one  of  RizaPs  books 
had  mortally  offended  her.  She,  too,  was  determined 
to  have  his  blood. 

All  the  hours  of  that  night  Rizal  spent  in  prayer,  in 
reading,  and  in  cheerful  conversation  with  his  guards 
and  the  priests.  He  did  not  sleep  and  had  no  need  of 
sleep.  But  his  wakefulness  was  not  of  his  nerves. 
None  of  the  watchers  could  detect  a  troubled  look  in 
his  eyes  or  a  quaver  in  the  smooth,  even  tones  of  his 
voice.1  Other  men  so  counting  out  the  last  moments 
of  their  lives  have  been  mercifully  supplied  with  drugs 
and  drink.  The  stimulus  that  sustained  Rizal  must 
have  been  from  within.  So  have  testified  the  witnesses. 

It  was  a  beautiful  morning,  men  still  remember, 
calm,  cool,  and  bright,  “the  bridal  of  the  earth  and 
sky,”  typical  of  the  sweet  December  weather  in  the 
Philippines;  the  air  so  clear  the  mountains  on  both 
sides  stood  out  marvelously  brown  and  rugged;  so 
clear  one  could  even  make  out  far  Corregidor  on  guard 
at  the  entrance  of  the  bay. 

As  day  broke  the  crowds  began  to  gather  in  the 
Luneta,  Spaniards  of  the  ruling  caste  predominated, 
come  to  see  the  death  of  their  enemy  and  gloat  over 
him;  but  also  there  were  Filipinos  with  drawn  brows 

1  Ketana,  p.  428. 


€^diA^l  aJb-VY  t  \ju^icy^  Ait  $  ol 

^enJUx.  djJL  >tuxa  cl*  &hjevJ5Lf  vu. fa jiur£~UK>  iAjo%^l 
cLojvG^  W^j  oJx^-e  tcx  th<^JjL  0'Vx<^UZo^  (jrttox 

y  j-XAj^Y^  /Vv\,  <:j.  -j  (yy  Xt<x.-*.^-C£.,  TVtcKf}  jfv<--4  Cci~(  yyy^cfA  jtaX 

'frjLA^kiA  ^  jd^£  XX  tcx  c%ajz~^<x.,  tu~  JL-fP'Vn^  pxxy  b-ix-iA-. 

b\~  C^Cu\AAyjrury  <Xi  IrtfrX  <*X£xs_ '  (aucaU.  osi^Jfa.  Cov\  ciji&LyVO 
'ft,  cLosisl’  dcuf  ixicLaA  4  o'Vv  cL**-JLaA ,  4  tsvz  yUUcuTj 
VLiJdUo  'Tioulc-  (ZpAjAj^^^XAxAjt  J  Zorto  * 

Z-o-Zia JU^o  o  (X^vv^y^o  Cxtrix^i  (Xnyv\A  oJjZ  k>  c^y-uout  yyxxx^iX^-uc  ^ 

£o  yvxXf  yyvx>  tj  fa to  pu,dusvx  Ccx  y>  ciyCXa.  lj  &£  , 

<Z~0  Vy\AAj/\sO  CU^Ct/i/v&T>  'V-to  CpoJL-  it  Ujtlo  A*~  cxb-ra. . 

of  aJ.  |tAA-  (^VW^Ci^  l&  d-*A>-  Crl2L4  tctvCx^O  CojiWi; 

*k  ^yoMA  ">vt<jj^M J5x4  pocvin-  Tc-cXy  tX  cu-A^r\rv"a/ 

VuaAjL  to L  V\sAo-f  (At^V-r-TX'V^'w^  tvv  fvA/Vt.  ^WTi|, 

^  AZ-rttcu  uiyvx  XjdJU^  o  djL'  leu  r\*xxXa~J£  iiAA.. 

tXCist  IaaAaAstJ  CiX40A*jhDr  Cej\JU\,a4  MuxAaAu  CethvZj^ 

UAl4  4Aa£XZ<T3  CueCO^x^O  *j  liXvW  $4,  via#* 

J\/iiyyip^  tX  XHAtsL'  *Aaa-  cZu^f^t r^p-  et*t  XTU4A,  JU  0\ijeZeXC/ 

Zit*o  /y\*^v<n  0^X4  f  <\$Artx  L<x.  tfawi a*  jnx>y%XjZ^ 


$ 


t*XZo,  j  xaa.  (Xh/XAA^xj  Yy^‘lsu>~cA^~0A  tU-  fU*Jn>x/, 

1/^1\ajXLj  cU  yvei  vXJlAj  rvui  paUZamAZ  A fUfo  cu-Jkxlo. 

SaJLi l<X  tje  ^XfX  at  <xteyx<L  cy^jL.  yy^rfat*  vrx.  a.  Jv&MisI 

$  cJiu-X  {  aM  cyO-  Oi  kje^rwstnsir  COJ^S  jp^fV  AajJZL  \AsJ&Gt 
JAijrrv y  p^v  $oa%£.  irl%o>-  fa-aSpo  XZ*'  (x*Xof 

2/  i-v*-  tX  &\aJ>cu*A-c£4  4t  @cx.  iXiw YeuX/xxk  (Xo~yyvxxsf „ 

J  f  't^yc,  vwc  ^ii  jx^JU^o  /ir\jur&i  \Aa-+-  <LC->* 

^y\X/\fu  V  -C/ tA\£st&'  AArC'’f&~Q l~  siXsiAs-C+tti)*^  -^Lonf 

J[~ZJL^C<>-Xas  cc  CXLrf  Co~X~ury  oj  XC)£A  cJL  oJi^x-a.  W>A~cef 

tf  1<A\^XZ.  -t-yO  Qaa.  Wvy,  fax X^o  t^tZZtYvfo'O--  ^rVe*^ 

it  loyJ-xo  cL»  'XZ.  it  (LoJicry, 

H^f/j  tx  Qfx  i< aA/xou  IaCvvvuu  t^rvv  luA,  P^OAAxyZXi-  h  4aa*aX  ' 

Oj^v'vXv'  <?«X  v\£sCf£o  Ccryu  fax  y\A^u>yv^xiX^^ 


Jpyteof 


PHOTOGRAPH  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  OF  “MY  LAST  FAREWELL J 

Note  the  handwriting 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  305 


and  quivering  lips,  disquieting  to  look  upon.1  In  many 
Filipino  houses  that  last  night  there  had  been  no  sleep. 
Men  and  women  prayed  all  night  for  the  man  about 
to  be  slaughtered  for  their  sake. 

At  seven  o’clock  the  troopers  came  and  tightly 
bound  his  arms  behind  his  back.  He  wore  a  neat  black 
suit  with  a  sack-coat  and  a  black  hat. 

Outside,  the  trumpets  sounded  and  the  drums  beat. 
The  troopers  placed  him  in  the  center  of  a  strong 
guard.  Then  they  led  him  forth  from  the  prison  door. 

With  the  drum  always  beating  at  the  head  of  the 
band,  thus  he  was  marched  almost  a  mile  through 
scenes  that  had  been  familiar  to  him  in  his  boyhood. 
Thirty-seven  years  and  twenty-eight  days  before, 
another  martyr  had  gone  forth  to  his  death  with  the 
same  clear-souled,  untroubled  calm.  “This  is  a  beau¬ 
tiful  country,”  said  John  Brown,  Osawatomie  Brown, 
as  with  the  sheritf  he  drove  to  the  execution-place; 
“I  never  noticed  it  before.”  With  the  same  sense  of 
drawing  in  for  the  last  time  the  breath  of  God’s  bounty 
to  men,  Rizal  looked  about  him  and  spoke  of  the  love¬ 
liness  of  the  scene.  “I  used  to  walk  here  with  my 
sweetheart,  ’  ’  said  he,  thinking  of  Leonora.  Above  the 
roofs  he  saw  the  Ateneo,  where  he  had  spent  so  many 
happy  days.  Since  his  time  the  buildings  had  been 
altered.  “When  were  those  two  towers  added?”  he 
asked  and  observed  the  effect  with  a  critical  eye.  All 
the  way  he  went  with  head  erect,  unflushed  cheek, 
unruffled  mien,  as  one  that  goes  forth  to  meet  fair 
weather  in  the  morning. 

By  his  side  marched  the  Jesuit  priests,  his  com- 

1  Clifford,  in  ‘  ‘  Blackwood ’s  Magazine.  ’  ’ 


306 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


forters  and  supporters,  for  he  always  remembered 
tenderly  his  days  at  the  Ateneo. 

“We  are  going  to  Calvary,”  he  said  to  them.  “My 
sufferings  are  little.  The  Savior  suffered  much.  He 
was  nailed  to  the  cross.  In  an  instant  the  bullets  will 
end  all  my  pain.  ’  ’ 1 

A  crowd  lined  the  street,  for  the  most  part  silent, 
but  among  the  Spaniards  were  some  exclamations  of 
joy.  One  foreigner,  a  Scotchman,  watching  the  scene, 
was  moved  to  cry  aloud  a  brief  good-by.  A  little  com¬ 
pany  of  Rizal’s  former  students  at  Dapitan  stood 
together  and  wept. 

He  looked  out  upon  the  bay  and  the  ships. 

“How  beautiful  is  the  morning,  Father!  How  clear 
is  the  view  of  Corregidor  and  the  Cavite  Mountains! 
I  walked  here  with  my  sweetheart,  Leonora,  on  morn¬ 
ings  like  this.” 

“The  morning  to  be  is  still  more  beautiful,  my  son,” 
answered  the  priest. 

“Why  is  that,  Father?”  asked  Rizal,  not  quite  un¬ 
derstanding  his  confessor’s  words. 

The  officer  in  charge  of  the  squad  stepped  between 
them,  and  the  father’s  reply  was  not  heard. 

Thus  they  moved  to  the  place  of  execution,  the 
dreadful  Bagumbayan  Field,  the  spot  where  so  many 
others  had  been  slain  for  defying  tyranny,  where 
Fathers  Gomez,  Burgos,  and  Zamora  had  given  up 
their  lives.  To  their  memory  he  had  dedicated  his 
protest  against  the  beast  that  had  torn  them.  Now  in 
his  own  turn  he  was  come  to  be  tom. 

A  great  troop  of  soldiers  had  formed  a  square  to 

1  Ketana,  p.  429. 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  307 


hold  the  people  back.  Artillery  was  drawn  up  as  if  a 
rescue  were  feared,  and  at  one  side — strange  and 
incongruous  spectacle! — a  band  to  sound  the  national 
anthem  of  triumph  over  this  one  man.  To  the  gov¬ 
erning  class  the  occasion  was  all  holiday.  Hundreds 
of  that  class  stood  there,  men  and  women,  and  uttered 
cries  of  animal  pleasure  when  they  saw  their  enemy 
come  bound  and  helpless  to  be  killed  before  their  eyes. 

Neither  they  nor  the  engines  of  death  they  had 
evoked  seemed  to  pierce  the  serenity  that  wrapped  him 
around.  As  they  reached  the  field,  he  stopped  before 
the  captain  in  command  and  said  quietly: 

“Will  you  shoot  me  in  the  front,  please V9 

“It  cannot  be,”  said  the  captain.  “I  have  orders  to 
shoot  you  in  the  back.  ’  ’ 

“But  I  was  never  traitor  to  my  own  country  nor  to 
Spain. ’  ’ 

“My  duty  is  to  comply  with  the  orders  I  have 
received.  ’ ’ 

“Very  well,  then;  shoot  me  as  you  please.”  1 

He  asked  that  the  soldiers  be  instructed  to  aim  not 
at  his  head  but  his  heart,  and  that  he  should  not  be 
compelled  to  kneel  but  might  receive  his  death  stand¬ 
ing.  These  requests  the  captain  granted. 

Into  the  square  he  marched,  between  two  batteries 
of  artillery,  a  company  of  cavalry  in  front,  another 
behind.  With  him  still  went  the  priests,  Fathers 
Estanislao  March  and  Jose  Villaclara,  and  behind 
them  the  man  that  had  been  his  counsel  in  the  mock 
trial,  Luis  de  Andrade.  Rizal  stepped  to  the  place 

*  Retana,  p.  431 ;  Craig,  p.  248.  The  details  of  the  last  scene  in 
Retana ’s  account  followed  here  were  supplied  to  him  by  Dr.  Saura,  who 
said  he  followed  the  death-march  and  tried  to  hear  all  that  was  said. 


308 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


where  he  was  to  die  and  looked  out  over  the  blue  sea, 
bright  in  the  sunlight.  And  then  for  the  first  time  the 
iron  composure  seemed  shaken.  It  may  have  been 
some  thought  of  his  lost  youth,  or  the  terror  of  the 
scene  that  reached  out  at  him  like  something  coldly 
palpable.  A  shiver  seemed  to  go  over  him ;  the  mortal 
man  that  he  had  so  long  suppressed  in  him  reasserted 
itself ;  and  one  great  sigh  seemed  to  burst  from  his 
heart. 

“0  Father,  how  terrible  it  is  to  die!  How  one  suf¬ 
fers!  Father,  I  forgive  every  one  from  the  bottom  of 
my  heart;  I  have  no  resentment  against  any  one: 
believe  me,  your  reverence !” 

The  next  instant  the  spasm  had  passed.  The  will 
with  which  he  had  ruled  himself  so  long  came  back  to 
its  accustomed  empire.  He  was  himself  again  and 
stood  erect,  with  no  twitching  of  his  lips  and  no  fear 
in  his  eyes. 

The  executioners  marched  upon  the  field. 

Rizal  shook  hands  firmly  with  the  priests  and  with 
his  counsel.  Father  March  held  to  him  the  cross  for 
him  to  kiss. 

He  now  turned  his  face  to  the  east  and  stood  with 
his  back  to  the  firing-squad.  Eight  native  soldiers  had 
been  told  off  to  slay  their  fellow-countryman.  Behind 
them  were  eight  Spanish  soldiers  with  leveled  rifles. 
They  were  to  shoot  the  executioners  if  these  failed  to 
obey  orders. 

Rizal  stood  with  his  eyes  open  and  turned  toward 
the  sky.  In  his  face,  it  is  said,  was  neither  ecstasy  nor 
fear,  but  only  the  calm  of  a  perfect  resignation.  Often 


/ 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  309 


he  had  said :  “What  is  death  to  me?  I  have  sown  the 
seed;  others  are  left  to  reap.”1  The  testing  of  that 
word  had  come.  It  found  him  ready  and  undismayed. 

At  that  instant  a  military  doctor,  amazed  by  such  a 
show  of  fortitude,  ran  out  from  the  line  of  officers. 

“Colleague,”  he  cried,  “may  I  feel  your  pulse?” 

Rizal  said  nothing  but  thrust  his  right  hand  as  far 
as  he  could  from  the  bands  that  held  it. 

The  pulse  was  hardly  a  beat  above  normal. 

“You  are  well,  colleague,”  said  the  doctor,  “very 
well!”  and  stepped  back  to  his  place. 

Rizal  made  no  response  and  resumed  his  former 
attitude.  He  now  twisted  his  right  hand  and  indicated 
the  spot  in  his  back  at  which  the  soldiers  should  aim. 

The  captain  gave  the  signal.  The  eight  soldiers 
fired  together. 

The  body  of  Rizal  was  seen  to  waver  and  fall.  With 
a  last  effort  of  his  indomitable  will,  even  in  falling  he 
turned  so  that  he  should  lie  with  face  upward.3 

In  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  his  age  and  the  twenty- 
fourth  year  of  his  service — poet,  patriot,  and  martyr. 

Cheers  and  laughter  arose  from  the  crowd  as  his 
blood  was  seen  to  be  pouring  upon  the  field.  Women 
waved  their  handkerchiefs  and  clapped  their  hands; 
men  shouted  with  delight.  This  was  the  end  of  him 
that  had  unveiled  to  the  world  the  realities  of  their 
social  order;  that  had  ridiculed  all  their  structure  of 
rank  and  caste.  He  had  died  like  a  dog  before  them. 

1  Foreman,  “The  Philippine  Islands,”  p.  386. 

3  Eetana,  pp.  430-432;  Craig,  pp.  247-250;  Derbyshire,  pp.  xlvii-xlix; 
Clifford  in  “Blackwood’s  Magazine”;  Mr.  Tavera’s  corrections; 
Pinana;  Foreman,  Chap.  XXII. 


310 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


The  band  played  the  national  anthem.  “Viva 
Espana!”  shouted  the  crowd.  A  photographer  made 
pictures  of  the  scene.  It  was  a  great  day  for  Spain. 
Her  supremacy  in  the  Philippines  was  approved  and 
established  for  ever.  For  whomsoever  thereafter 
might  venture  to  question  its  righteousness,  the  same 
fate.  Let  him  also  die  like  a  dog  to  the  applause  and 
laughter  of  the  existing  order,  rock-rooted  and  eternal. 

“Viva  Espaha!”  How  poor  are  they  that  will  not 
ponder  history!  From  the  hanging  of  John  Brown  to 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  three  years  and 
twenty-nine  days.  From  the  murder  of  Jose  Rizal  to 
the  surrender  of  Manila  was  one  year,  eight  months, 
and  seventeen  days. 

The  body  was  cast  into  an  undesignated  grave,  and 
great  care  was  taken  to  obliterate  all  marks  by  which 
it  might  be  identified;  for  this  hated  enemy  there 
should  be  nothing  but  loathing  and  contumely,  alive 
or  dead.  The  perpetrators  of  this  last  outrage  be¬ 
lieved  they  had  managed  with  skill  and  success.  Little 
they  knew  the  people  with  whom  they  dealt.  Into  the 
unmarked  grave  were  covertly  introduced  objects  that 
would  allow  of  a  future  identification,1  and  the  dust 
that  malice  and  bigotry  sought  to  dishonor  was  des¬ 
tined  to  a  final  burial  with  the  proud  mourning  of  a 
nation  and  the  respectful  sympathy  of  the  world. 

Not  even  yet  was  satiated  the  hot  thirst  for  blood 
that  seemed  to  rage  in  this  abnormal  community.  The 
jails  had  been  stuffed  with  other  members  of  the  Liga 
Filipina,  men  that  like  Rizal  had  committed  the  crime 
of  desiring  their  country’s  good.  On  January  11, 1897, 

1  Craig,  p.  251. 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  311 


two  weeks  after  the  sacrifice  of  Rizal,  fourteen  of  his 
companions  were  led  forth  to  Bagumbayan  Field  and 
shot,  as  he  had  been  shot.  Two  of  these  were  priests 
of  the  church;  among  the  laymen  were  members  of 
ancient  Filipino  families,  and  men  of  conspicuously 
blameless  walk  and  notable  attainments.  Father  Ino- 
cencio  Herrera  and  Father  Prieto  Geronimo  led  the 
procession  of  the  condemned  whose  names  were  now  to 
be  added  to  the  long  roll  of  those  that  had  made  that 
one  field  a  shrine  of  liberty  hardly  to  be  equaled  in 
men’s  acquaintance.  Others  whose  blood  was  shed 
with  theirs  that  day  on  that  sacred  spot  were  Domingo 
Franco,  Moises  Salvador,  Numeriano  Adriano,  An¬ 
tonio  Salazar,  Jose  Dizon,  Luis  Enciso  Villareal, 
Faustino  Villareal,  Ramon  A.  Padilla,  Manuel  Avella, 
Roman  Basa,  Cristobal  Medina,  and  Francisco  Roxas. 
It  was  a  flag  dripping  with  blood  that  Spain  raised 
to  the  world  that  morning. 

Of  these  some  had  endured  such  torturings  that 
death  must  have  come  as  a  relief.  Neither  age  nor 
worth  to  be  spared,  was  the  ancestral  precept  for  all 
such  butcheries.  Moises  Salvador  was  more  than  sev¬ 
enty  years  old.  He  had  been  tortured  until  he  could  no 
longer  stand  and  must  be  carried  out  and  laid  prone  on 
the  ground  when  his  time  came  to  be  shot.  Francisco 
Roxas  the  thumb-screw,  or  whatever  other  deviltries, 
had  made  insane.  He  knew  nothing  of  what  was  going 
on  about  him  but  imagined  himself  to  be  in  church. 
When  he  knelt  before  the  firing-squad  he  spread  his 
handkerchief  upon  the  ground  as  he  would  upon  the 
church  floor  and  began  to  say  his  ordinary  prayers.1 

1  Craig,  p.  259. 


312 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


‘ 4  Viva  Espana ! ’  ’  There  never  was  a  grimmer  irony 
of  fate.  Even  as  the  crowds  raised  that  cry  above 
the  blood  of  Rizal,  in  all  the  Far  East  there  was  no 
more  Spain.  The  band  that  played  triumphant  the 
national  anthem  was  in  reality  sounding  a  funeral 
dirge.  The  shots  that  struck  down  Rizal  to  the  cheers 
of  “ broadcloth  ruffians”  shattered  the  Spanish  empire. 
Until  that  December  30,  1896,  there  remained  just 
basis  for  the  ancient  boast  about  the  flag  whereon  the 
sun  never  set;  as  Rizal  tottered  and  fell  it  passed 
among  the  curios  of  history.  On  the  day  the  murder¬ 
ous  court  martial  pronounced  Rizal ’s  death  the  Fili¬ 
pinos  began  to  slip  from  the  city  and  join  the  forces 
of  Bonifacio.  Among  them  that  evening  went  Paciano, 
men  said  with  pinched  lips  and  clenched  jaws,  to  fight 
with  conspicuous  valor  while  the  Spanish  flag  flew  in 
his  country.1  Silently  they  went  and  by  thousands. 
The  insurgent  fines  swept  up  as  close  as  Cavite,  so 
strong  had  the  uprising  grown.  There,  in  the  face 
of  all  the  vigilance,  all  the  spying,  all  the  rules  and 
regulations,  they  stood  in  their  trenches  with  arms  in 
their  hands.  Guns  came  from  the  thickets,  the  roofs, 

the  carabao  stalls.  Soldiers  that  enlisted  without  rifles 

/ 

fought  with  bolos  until  in  the  first  encounter  they  could 
wrest  guns  from  the  Spaniards.  From  the  waterfront 
of  Manila  one  could  see  their  flag  flying.  Inadequately 
armed,  badly  fed,  ragged  and  untrained,  they  went  into 
battle  and  overwhelmed  the  Spanish  regulars,  because 
they  had  been  fired  with  a  vision  of  freedom  and  a 
holy  wrath  against  the  System  that  had  struck  down 
their  champion.  Back  went  the  Spanish  regulars  to 

1  He  rose  from  the  ranks  to  the  grade  of  brigadier -general. 


“FROM  MARTYRDOM  UNTO  THIS  PEACE”  313 


the  gates  of  Manila,  as  one  hundred  years  before  the 
household  troops  of  every  king  in  Europe  had  bent 
before  the  citizen  soldiery  of  France,  fighting  for  the 
republic. 

In  a  short  time  there  was  left  no  last  doubt  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  revolt;  with  reason  this  time  the 
Spanish  colony  cowered.  The  thirty-fourth  since  the 
beginning  of  Spanish  dominion  in  the  Philippines,  it 
threatened  at  last  to  sweep  that  vicious  anomaly  into 
the  sea.  A  man  had  arisen  capable  of  verifying  the 
most  sanguine  of  Bonifacio’s  prophecies,  a  college- 
bred  farmer,  without  military  training  but  with  a 
strange  gift  of  military  prescience,  able  with  an  equip¬ 
ment  of  native  genius  to  outwit,  outmanceuver,  and 
outlast  the  best  of  the  Spanish  commanders.  Against 
the  skill  and  restless  energy  of  Emilio  Aguinaldo  they 
seemed  to  make  no  permanent  progress,  and  one  read¬ 
ing  the  records  of  those  days  is  irresistibly  reminded 
of  Francis  Marion  and  the  Carolinas.  If  the  regulars 
drove  him  hence  to-day,  he  would  attack  them  there 
to-morrow.  A  union  of  Filipino  hearts  such  as  Rizal, 
living,  had  hardly  dared  to  dream  of  had  been  ce¬ 
mented  by  his  death.  For  the  first  time  the  possibility 
of  ridding  all  the  Islands  of  all  Spanish  power  laid 
hold  upon  determined  and  reasoning  men,  and  there 
began  a  life  and  death  struggle  between  light  and  dark¬ 
ness,  the  nineteenth  century  and  the  sixteenth. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 

IN’  this  long  conflict  character  shone  forth  and  latent 
ability,  refuting  old  slanders  on  the  race.  The  Fili¬ 
pino  disclosed  himself.  By  ancient  repute  the  Malayan 
was  cruel  and  treacherous ;  the  test  of  warfare  showed 
him  to  be  much  more  humane  than  the  Spaniard  and 
much  more  sensible  of  honor  and  faith.  He  had  been 
described  as  incapable  of  combined  and  sustained  ac¬ 
tivities;  he  revealed  himself  as  organizing  a  govern¬ 
ment  out  of  chaos,  coordinating  the  energies  of  peoples 
unused  to  common  effort,  launching  a  democracy 
founded  upon  the  most  advanced  ideas  of  political 
philosophy,  defending  it  with  skill  and  tenacious 
courage  comparable  to  the  best  traditions  of  the  Swiss 
mountaineers.  Men  whose  talents  had  never  been  sus¬ 
pected  because  they  had  never  had  a  chance  to  function 
arose  in  the  Filipino  ranks  to  astonish  their  enemies 
and  overwhelm  prejudice.  Great  commanders  ap¬ 
peared  like  Luna  and  del  Pilar ;  statesmen  and  thinkers 
like  Felipe  Calderon;  and  profoundly  philosophical 
and  illuminating  intellects  like  Apolinario  Mabini. 

Next  to  Rizal  himself,  this  was  the  greatest  genius 
the  Islands  had  produced  and  one  that  would  have  de¬ 
served  eminence  in  any  country  or  any  time.  He  was 
come  of  poor  people  in  the  province  of  Batangas  and 
had  won  an  education  partly  through  the  pathetic  sac¬ 
rifices  of  his  mother  and  partly  through  his  own  exer- 

314 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


315 


tions,  which  in  that  time  and  place  amounted  to  hero¬ 
ism.  He  was  first  in  a  school  at  Tanauan  and  then  at 
the  College  of  San  Juan  de  Letran  in  Manila,  where 
he  earned  his  way  by  teaching.  His  mother’s  hope 
had  been  that  he  would  take  holy  orders;  but  his 
studies  had  made  him  skeptical  instead  of  reverent; 
he  revolted  at  the  priesthood,  and  chose  the  bar,  to 
which  he  was  admitted  in  1894. 

Like  Bonifacio  he  was  a  great  reader,  but  on  differ¬ 
ent  lines.  The  warehouse  porter,  hanging  by  night 
over  such  books  as  he  could  lay  hands  upon,  was  set 
aflame  by  the  struggles  of  mankind  against  oppression, 
particularly  by  that  which  is  the  epitome  and  symbol 
of  them  all,  the  French  Revolution.  Mabini,  cool  and 
even-pulsed  philosopher,  was  concerned  not  so  much 
with  the  physical  aspects  of  revolution  as  with  its 
causes.  If  the  human  story  told  true,  revolutions  were 
some  rebound  of  the  spirit  of  man  against  a  privileged 
class  that  held  or  sought  to  hold  the  rest  as  bondmen. 
As  this  conflict  between  two  main  forces  occupied  so 
much  of  the  history  he  was  analyzing  with  his  keen 
sure  mind,  and  as  it  seemed  the  only  thing  there  of 
enduring  importance,  he  molded  from  its  pages  a  phi¬ 
losophy  of  human  life  and  its  import  not  unworthy 
of  Jefferson  and  Mill.  The  basis  of  everything  good 
he  conceived  to  be  liberty ;  without  liberty  there  could 
be  no  light  and  no  progress.  With  a  coolly  measuring 
eye,  as  an  architect  looks  at  a  building,  he  went  over 
the  system  of  government  erected  by  Spain  in  the 
Philippines  and  estimated  its  fatal  defects  as  a  struc¬ 
ture  no  longer  tenable,  knowing  well  that  its  fall  was 
overdue. 


316 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


Much  more  than  Rizal  he  seems  to  have  seized  the 
fundamental  facts  about  man’s  capacity  for  self-gov¬ 
ernment  and  the  only*way  to  uncover  and  develop  that 
capacity.  He,  too,  was  of  the  cloister,  and  might  have 
slipped  likewise  into  the  darling  errors  of  the  school¬ 
men  about  the  magic  keys  to  this  wisdom  believed  to 
he  buried  in  a  classical  education.  He  made  no  such 
error.  Not  even  Jefferson  was  of  a  clearer  faith.  He 
accepted  the  whole  democratic  theory  of  government, 
not  sentimentally  but  as  the  ultimate  fact  in  human 
existence.  On  philosophical  grounds,  for  unassailable 
reasons,  popular  rule  was  right;  in  the  end  the  only 
human  wisdom  was  the  general  thought.  In  the  ver¬ 
dict  of  the  majority  he  saw  plainly  the  manifestation 
of  the  will  of  God. 

He  was  not  influenced  by  Bonifacio,  of  whose  ex¬ 
istence  he  seems  to  have  been  unaware  until  1892.  As 
one  of  the  earliest  members  of  La  Liga  Filipina  he 
may  have  been  influenced  at  one  time  by  Rizal;  but 
there  was  little  chance  and  less  need  that  he  should 
be  influenced  by  anybody.  His  was  a  mind  accustomed 
to  independent  action ;  it  seems  always  to  have  moved 
to  its  own  conclusions  in  its  own  way. 

He  was  an  early  recruit  to  the  Katipunan,  where, 
after  a  time,  he  became  one  of  Bonifacio’s  chief  ad¬ 
visers.  A  stroke  of  paralysis  crippled  his  body  hut 
left  his  mind  clear  and  active.  When  the  storm  burst 
and  official  lunacy  raged  in  Manila,  his  physical  in¬ 
firmities  prevented  his  flight  with  his  fellows. 
Trapped  among  other  unfortunates,  a  drum-head 
doomed  him  to  he  shot.  It  is  likely  the  Government 
knew  little  of  his  real  connection  with  the  Katipunan 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


317 


and  nothing  of  his  capacity  to  cause  trouble.  The 
sentence  of  death  upon  him  was  delayed.  At  last, 
homicidal  mania  spent  itself  even  in  Manila.  Then, 
because  of  his  physical  condition,  he  was  set  at  liberty. 

This  was  in  1897,  when  revolution  had  changed  all 
the  outlook  in  the  Philippines  and  the  governing  class 
was  beginning  to  doubt  its  destiny.  For  the  next  year 
he  was  undergoing  medical  treatment  at  the  hot 
springs  of  Los  Banos.  In  the  summer  of  1898  he  made 
his  way  to  the  revolutionary  forces  and  was  thereafter 
their  ablest  counselor,  the  shrewd  adviser  of  the  com¬ 
manders  in  the  field,  the  first  voice  in  all  negotiations, 
and  to  the  masses  of  people  the  endless  source  of  inspi¬ 
ration  ;  for  in  all  emergencies,  however  sudden  or  per¬ 
plexing,  here  was  the  heart  indomitable. 

In  him  as  in  Rizal,  the  mysteries  of  an  unusual 
power  resolve  themselves  at  last  into  unusual  char¬ 
acter.  What  was  Mabini  ’s  character  may  be  gathered 
from  this  decalogue  he  composed  for  his  own  guidance 
and  that  of  his  countrymen: 

First.  Thou  shalt  love  God  and  thine  honor  above  all 
things ;  God  as  the  fountain  of  all  truth,  of  all  justice,  and  of 
all  activity ;  and  thine  honor,  the  only  power  that  will  oblige 
thee  to  be  faithful,  just,  and  industrious. 

Second.  Thou  shalt  worship  God  in  the  form  that  thy  con¬ 
science  may  deem  most  righteous  and  worthy ;  for  in  thy  con¬ 
science,  which  condemns  thine  evil  deeds  and  praises  thy  good 
ones,  speaks  thy  God. 

Third.  Thou  shalt  cultivate  the  special  gifts  that  God  has 
granted  thee,  working  and  studying  according  to  thine  ability, 
never  leaving  the  path  of  righteousness  and  justice,  in  order 
to  attain  to  thine  own  perfection,  by  means  whereof  thou  shalt 


318 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


contribute  to  the  progress  of  humanity.  Thus  thou  shalt  fulfil 
the  mission  to  which  God  has  appointed  thee,  and  by  so  doing 
thou  shalt  be  honored,  and,  being  honored,  thou  shalt  glorify 
thy  God. 

Fourth.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  country  after  God  and  thine 
honor  and  more  than  thyself:  for  she  is  the  only  paradise 
which  God  has  given  thee  in  this  life,  the  only  patrimony  of 
thy  race,  the  only  inheritance  of  thine  ancestors,  and  the  only 
hope  of  thy  posterity ;  because  of  her,  thou  hast  life,  love,  and 
interests,  happiness,  honor,  and  God. 

Fifth.  Thou  shalt  strive  for  the  happiness  of  thy  country 
before  thine  own,  making  of  her  the  kingdom  of  reason,  of 
justice,  and  of  labor;  for  if  she  be  happy,  thou,  together  with 
thy  family,  shalt  likewise  be  happy. 

Sixth.  Thou  shalt  strive  for  the  independence  of  thy 
country;  for  only  thou  canst  have  any  real  interest  in  her 
advancement  and  exaltation,  because  her  independence  consti¬ 
tutes  thine  own  liberty ;  her  advancement,  thy  perfection ;  and 
her  exaltation,  thine  own  glory  and  immortality. 

Seventh.  Thou  shalt  not  recognize  in  thy  country  the 
authority  of  any  person  that  has  not  been  elected  by  thee  and 
thy  countrymen;  for  authority  emanates  from  God,  and  as 
God  speaks  in  the  conscience  of  every  man,  the  person  desig¬ 
nated  and  proclaimed  by  the  conscience  of  a  whole  people  is 
the  only  one  that  can  use  true  authority. 

Eighth.  Thou  shalt  strive  for  a  republic  and  never  for  a 
monarchy  in  the  country ;  for  the  latter  exalts  one  or  several 
families  and  founds  a  dynasty ;  the  former  makes  a  people 
noble  and  worthy  through  reason,  great  through  liberty,  and 
prosperous  and  brilliant  through  labor. 

Ninth.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;  for  God 
has  imposed  upon  him  the  obligation  to  help  thee,  as  upon 
thee  the  obligation  to  help  him,  and  not  to  do  to  thee  what  he 
would  not  have  thee  do  unto  him ;  but  if  thy  neighbor,  failing 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


319 


in  this  sacred  duty,  attempt  against  thy  life,  thy  liberty,  and 
thy  interests,  then  thou  shalt  destroy  and  annihilate  him,  for 
the  supreme  law  of  self-preservation  prevails. 

Tenth.  Thou  shalt  consider  thy  countryman  as  more  than 
thy  neighbor;  thou  shalt  see  in  him  thy  friend,  thy  brother, 
or  at  least  thy  comrade,  with  whom  thou  art  bound  by  one 
fate,  by  the  same  joys  and  sorrows,  and  by  common  aspira¬ 
tions  and  interests. 

Therefore,  as  long  as  national  frontiers  subsist,  raised  and 
maintained  by  the  selfishness  of  race  and  of  family,  with  thy 
countryman  alone  shalt  thou  unite  in  a  perfect  solidarity  of 
purpose  and  interest,  in  order  to  have  force,  not  only  to  resist 
the  common  enemy  but  also  to  attain  all  the  aims  of  human 
life. 

Meantime,  in  the  great  events  that  had  shaken  this 
ancient  theater  of  bold  deeds,  the  freedom  of  which 
Mabini  and  his  fellows  had  dreamed  had  more  than 
once  lightened  before  them.  With  the  news  of  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  the  Katipunan  and  the  cruelties  of  the  hys¬ 
teria  in  high  places  that  followed  next,  the  revolution 
spread  swiftly -to  the  provinces.  Cavite,  Batangas, 
Zambales,  Tarlac  rose  as  the  clans  rose  in  Scotland; 
a  remarkable  fact,  for  here  had  been  no  preparation, 
and  the  Katipunan  had  not  gone  far  beyond  Manila 
walls.  Nothing  would  seem  to  show  more  plainly  that 
the  psychology  of  the  people  had  been  all  misread. 
At  Rizal’s  school  he  had  noticed  that  the  Spaniards 
deemed  the  natives  submissive  to  kicks  and  insults 
when  in  reality  wrath  burned  in  the  native  heart.  It 
was  so  here ;  while  the  “ miserable  Indio”  had  borne  in 
silence  the  lash  of  the  governing  class  he  had  not 
ceased  at  any  time  to  resent  its  sting,  and  at  the  first 
call  to  revolt  the  whole  Island  went  aflame.  In  a  week 


320 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


the  comfortable  fictions  about  Filipino  incapacity  were 
shattered  by  such  ponderable  facts  as  shot  and  shell, 
and  Spain  was  retreating  before  the  gravest  crisis  it 
had  known  in  its  325  years  of  mismanagement. 

Bonifacio’s  forces  increased  daily.  He  gave  battle 
to  the  regular  troops  sent  against  him  and  sometimes 
he  beat  them,  sometimes  he  was  beaten ;  but  never  was 
he  dismayed.  He  developed  captains  among  the  young 
men  that  flocked  around  him ;  with  others,  this  Emilio 
Aguinaldo  of  whom  we  have  spoken.  This  was  a  youth 
lately  out  of  college  that  had  never  set  a  squadron  in 
the  field  nor  the  divisions  of  a  battle  knew  more  than 
Cassio.  Yet  he  quickly  showed  such  natural  talents 
for  command  that  he  made  his  fame  enduring  among 
the  military  leaders  of  all  times.  He  was  bom  in  the 
city  of  Cavite  in  March,  1869,  and  had  studied  at 
the  College  of  San  Juan  with  no  more  thought  of 
being  a  soldier  than  of  being  a  chiropodist.  He  had 
read  his  horoscope  in  the  face  of  fate  and  perceived 
that  he  was  to  be  a  farmer  and  lead  a  quiet  life 
among  dingles  and  rice-plots.  No  sooner  had  he 
fingered  his  degree  at  San  Juan  than  he  hastened  to 
fulfil  this  modest  destiny  by  taking  a  farm  in  Cavite 
province  and  trying  to  better  the  yield  of  rice  there. 
He  had  character,  a  presence,  and  a  good  mind ;  he  had 
not  been  farming  long  when  he  was  made  municipal 
captain  of  his  district.  From  his  youth  he  seems  to 
have  been  strong  for  nationalism,  being  a  type  of  the 
class  of  young  men  rising  in  all  parts  of  the  Islands 
on  whom  the  Spanish  collar  rested  uneasily  if  at  all, 
the  class  of  which  Rizal  was  the  best  example  and  nat¬ 
ural  leader.  In  1894  he  joined  the  Katipunan.  When 


THE  RIZAL  MONUMENT  AT  THE  LUNETA  DECORATED  FOR  RIZAL 

DAY,  DECEMBER  30 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


321 


Father  Gil  pulled  the  strings  and  revealed,  to  the 
fevered  imagination  of  the  Spaniards,  the  lair  of  this 
frightful  monster,  Aguinaldo  was  one  of  the  first  to 
proclaim  the  revolution.  Chiefly  it  was  his  work  that 
made  Cavite  an  insurrectionary  stronghold.  In  what¬ 
ever  he  undertook  he  showed  the  executive  faculty, 
the  power  to  get  things  done  quickly  and  efficiently, 
and  a  cool,  hardy  courage  that  no  emergency  could 
shake.  Bonifacio  advanced  him  to  the  highest  com¬ 
mands,  and  in  each  instance  the  result  justified  the 
election,  for  the  man  had  undoubtedly  an  instinct  for 
war. 

On  March  12,  1897,  seven  months  after  the  Kati- 
punan  explosion,  a  convention  of  the  revolutionists 
met  to  establish  a  Provisional  Government.  No  doubt 
Bonifacio,  still  head  of  the  Katipunan,  expected  to  be 
made  president  of  the  Provisional  Republic,  also ;  but 
the  convention’s  choice  was  Aguinaldo.  Intrigue  may 
have  played  some  part  in  this  denouement ;  but  the  im¬ 
pulse  to  it  was  Aguinaldo ’s  brilliant  operations  in  the 
field — Napoleon  and  the  Directoire  again.  Bonifacio 
was  offered  the  place  of  secretary  of  the  interior.  He 
angrily  refused  it  and  took  to  the  mountains  with  his 
brothers.  In  trying  to  arrest  him  a  party  of  soldiers 
wounded  him  to  death. 

For  months  the  war  was  fought  with  varying 
chances.  Sometimes  the  Filipinos  routed  the  Span¬ 
iards;1  sometimes  they  were  driven  back.  Fresh 

1  General  Monet  (Spanish)  operated  in  the  north  against  the  rebels 
with  Spanish  and  native  auxiliary  forces.  He  attacked  the  armed  mobs 
in  Zambales  province,  where  encounters  of  minor  importance  took  place 
almost  daily,  with  no  decisive  victory  for  either  party.  He  showed  no 
mercy  and  took  no  prisoners;  his  troops  shot  down  or  bayoneted  rebels, 
non-combatants,  women  and  children  indiscriminately.  Tillage  was 


322 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


/ 

troops  came  from  Spain;  gradually  the  revolutionists 
retired  into  the  mountains;  but  it  was  evident  that 
no  forces  the  Spaniards  were  likely  to  gather  would 
be  enough  to  suppress  this  uprising.  What  Spain 
faced  was  such  years  of  wearying  warfare  as  had 
drained  her  treasury  and  brought  her  shame  in  Cuba. 
It  was  a  prospect  the  Government  viewed  with  no  sat¬ 
isfaction.  Another  governor-general,  Primo  de  Ri¬ 
vera,  came  out  to  take  the  place  of  Polavieja,  the  fool¬ 
ish  man  that  had  led  the  mad  hunt  after  Katipunanists. 
Once  before  de  Rivera  had  been  governor-general ;  by 
some  extravagance  he  was  believed  to  understand  the 
Filipinos  and  to  be  their  friend.  He  now  sought  to 
end  a  strife  so  unpromising  of  any  result  except  defi¬ 
cits.  A  meeting  was  arranged  with  the  insurgent 
chiefs,  at  which  a  treaty 1  was  patched  together 
whereby  the  Filipinos  were  to  have  all  the  reforms  and 
rights  they  had  demanded  and  had  fought  for,  except 
actual  independence.  When  we  come  to  look  to-day  at 
these  sweeping  changes  we  should  note  that  prominent 
among  them  was  the  triumph  of  the  people  so  long 
delayed  over  the  orders.  These  were  to  be  expelled 
or  secularized.2  Complete  religious  freedom  was  ex- 

carried  on  at  the  risk  of  one’s  life,  for  men  found  going  out  to  their 
lands  were  seized  as  spies  and  treated  with  the  utmost  severity  as  possi¬ 
ble  sympathizers  with  the  rebels.  He  carried  this  war  of  extermination 
up  to  Ilocos,  where,  little  by  little,  his  forces  deserted  him.  His  auxili¬ 
aries  went  over  to  the  rebels  in  groups.  Even  a  few  Spaniards  passed 
to  the  other  side,  and,  after  a  protracted  struggle  which  brought  no 
advantage  to  the  government,  he  left  garrisons  in  several  places  and 
returned  to  Manila. — Foreman,  p.  390. 

1  Treaty  of  Biacnabato. 

2  Fernandez,  p.  251. 

‘  ‘  That  Spanish  circles  in  Manila  as  well  as  the  Filipinos  were  in 
expectation,  late  in  1897,  and  early  in  1898,  of  the  announcement  of 
some  comprehensive  scheme  of  Philippine  reform  is  apparent  from  the 
press  of  that  time.” — Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  LII,  pp.  200-201. 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


323 


plicitly  guaranteed — and  no  more  friars,  no  more  Sys¬ 
tem.  By  this  token  it  would  seem,  then,  that  Rizal 
had  already  conquered.  He  exposed  the  orders;  the 
orders  killed  him,  but  apparently  wrought  thereby 
their  own  ruin. 

Amnesty  for  all  that  had  taken  part  in  the  revo¬ 
lution  was  promised,  with  momentous  changes  in  the 
methods  of  government.  There  was  to  be  no  longer 
an  irresponsible  oligarchy  ruling  as  it  pleased;  the 
Philippines  were  to  have  representation  in  the  Span¬ 
ish  Parliament ;  they  were  to  emerge  from  the  darkness 
that  fostered  iniquity  and  dwell  in  the  critical  spot¬ 
lights  of  civilization.  There  was  to  be  a  free  press, 
free  speech,  free  assembly;  there  were  to  be  radical 
reforms  in  the  courts  and  other  desirable  novelties. 
A  sum  of  money  was  to  be  deposited  by  the  Spanish 
Government  to  guarantee  the  fulfilment  of  these 
pledges  and  to  provide  for  the  families  of  the  revo¬ 
lutionists  killed  in  the  war.  Aguinaldo  and  his  com¬ 
manders  were  to  retire  from  the  country. 

This  was  signed  December  14,  1897.  In  two  months 
it  was  evident  that  the  Spanish  Government  had  no 
intention  to  keep  any  of  the  pledges  thus  made.  The 
orders  abated  nothing  of  their  power  and  insolence; 
the  captured  revolutionists  were  rigorously  punished 
and  often  horribly  mishandled;  there  was  no  free 
speech,  no  free  press ;  no  improvements  were  made  in 
the  courts;  only  a  part  of  the  guarantee  fund  was  de¬ 
posited.  The  revolution  was  resumed  with  new  fury. 
Again  the  Filipinos  drove  the  Spanish  regulars  be¬ 
fore  them  until  the  noise  of  their  guns  was  heard  in 
Manila  itself,  when  the  blowing  up  of  the  American 


324 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


battle-ship  Maine  in  the  harbor  of  Havana  gave  to  the 
relations  between  Spain  and  the  United  States  a  new 
and  startling  aspect. 

Soon  after  the  declaration  of  war  between  these  na¬ 
tions  and  before  the  battle  of  Manila  Bay,  Commodore 
Dewey  invited  Aguinaldo  to  join  him.  On  May  11, 
1898,  the  Filipino  leader  landed  at  Cavite  and  took 
command  of  the  insurgent  army.  From  that  time  the 
Spanish  troops  met  with  nothing  but  disaster.  Step 
by  step  they  were  driven  (by  native  troops  and  these 
only)  out  of  every  stronghold,  not  only  in  Luzon  but  in 
the  other  Islands,  until  August  when  they  were  shut  up 
in  Manila  and  completely  surrounded  with  Filipino 
trenches,  while  Dewey’s  ships  held  the  sea  approaches. 
On  August  10,  Aguinaldo  captured  the  Manila  water¬ 
works,  and  had  the  city  at  his  mercy.  On  August  13 
it  surrendered,  not  to  him  that  really  had  reduced  it, 
but  to  the  American  naval  and  land  forces;  although 
of  such  land  forces  there  was  but  a  handful. 

Aguinaldo  had  made  Mabini  the  president  of  his 
council  and  secretary  of  foreign  affairs.  Mabini  now 
bent  himself  to  organize  a  constitutional  government, 
and  if  the  achievement  that  followed  had  been  staged 
nearer  to  the  center  of  the  world’s  attention  it  would 
have  been  hailed  as  a  triumph  of  constructive  states¬ 
manship.  On  September  15,  the  first  Philippine  Con¬ 
gress  met  at  Malolos,  about  twenty-five  miles  north 
of  Manila,  and  proceeded  to  draft  for  the  Philippine 
Republic  a  constitution  that  for  wisdom  and  sound 
democratic  philosophy  may  be  compared  with  any 
other  similar  chart  by  which  any  government  ever  was 
steered.  On  November  29,  1898,  the  Congress  adopted 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


325 


this  constitution,  and  on  the  following  January  21, 
the  Philippine  Republic,  complete  and  functioning,  was 
installed  in  place  of  the  Provisional  Government. 
Mabini  was  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

The  United  States  refused  to  recognize  the  new  re¬ 
public,  but,  in  accordance  wdth  the  absurd  treaty  of 
Paris,  insisted  upon  its  own  sovereignty  over  all  the 
Philippines.  For  twenty  million  dollars  it  had  bought 
of  Spain  a  title  that  Spain  did  not  possess.  We  need 
not  dwell  long  on  the  deplorable  strife  that  now  ensued 
between  the  American  and  Filipino  forces.1  On  Feb¬ 
ruary  4,  the  Americans  advanced  into  territory  held 
by  the  Filipino  army,  and  for  the  next  two  years  war 
raged.  The  Filipinos,  although  badly  armed  and  al¬ 
ways  outnumbered,  showed  a  tenacity,  a  courage,  and 
a  military  prowess  that  continually  astonished  the 
Americans  and  won  their  candid  and  reiterated  praise. 
Much  of  the  credit  for  the  skilful  handling  of  the  Fili¬ 
pino  forces  was  due  to  General  Antonio  Luna,  Agui- 
naldo’s  chief  of  staff,  whose  natural  aptitude  for  arms 
had  been  developed  by  study  in  the  best  schools  of 
Europe.  When  he  lost  his  life  in  June,  1899,  the  Fili¬ 
pino  cause  suffered  a  heavy  blow,  but  not  so  heavy 
as  its  enemies  expected.  For  the  singular  fact  was  to 
be  noted  that  out  of  the  body  of  natives  once  despised 
and  scornfully  classed  as  4  4  brethren  of  the  water- 
buff  alo”  arose  men  capable  of  inspiring  the  soldiers 
of  a  hopeless  cause  and  of  leading  them  well  in  des¬ 
perately  fought  battles.  If  for  the  moment  we  can  lay 
aside  nationalistic  consciousness,  the  dauntless  striv- 

*For  a  full  account  of  these  difficulties,  see  “The  Outlook  for  the 
Philippines,  ’ 7  pp.  77-98. 


326 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


ings  of  the  Filipinos  against  the  Americans  will  appear 
worthy  of  a  place  in  best  records  of  the  struggles  of 
the  weak  against  the  strong. 

On  March  23,  1901,  President  Aguinaldo  was  cap¬ 
tured,  and  thereafter  the  war  slowly  subsided  until 
on  July  4,  1902,  President  Roosevelt  issued  a  procla¬ 
mation  of  amnesty  and  the  American  Government  took 
up  the  work  of  reconstruction,  of  which  the  first  pur¬ 
pose  was  to  prepare  the  natives  for  the  independence 
repeatedly  promised  them. 

Reviewing  this  chapter  (none  too  edifying)  in 
American  history,  one  cannot  well  escape  the  feeling 
that  the  American  success  was  stained  with  a  need¬ 
lessly  harsh  treatment  of  Mabini,  the  Thomas  Jeffer¬ 
son  of  the  Filipino  cause.  The  American  forces  cap¬ 
tured  him  in  September,  1899,  and  kept  him  in  prison 
for  a  year.  He  had  been  at  liberty  a  scant  six  months 
when  he  was  arrested  again  and  carried  a  prisoner 
to  Guam,1  where  he  was  kept  two  years,  returning 
home  to  die.  While  he  was  under  examination  by 
American  army  officers,  occurred  a  characteristic  pas¬ 
sage.  He  was  asked  if  he  had  heard  any  one  talking 
in  favor  of  Philippine  independence. 

‘  ‘  I  have,  ’ ’  said  Mabini,  speaking  always  in  the  same 
low,  even  voice. 

“Whom  have  you  heard V9 

‘ 4  Myself.  ’  ’ 

“What?  Are  you  opposed  to  the  rule  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Philippines  ? 9  9 

“I  certainly  am.  I  am  opposed  to  the  rule  of  any 
power  here  except  that  of  the  people  of  these  Islands. 

1  Barrows,  1 1  History  of  the  Philippines,  ’  ’  p.  308. 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


327 


If  you  wish  to  shoot  somebody  for  holding  such  senti¬ 
ments,  shoot  me.  Do  not  shoot  or  imprison  those  to 
whom  I  have  urged  this  doctrine;  do  not  waste  time 
in  hunting  for  them.  Shoot  me,  the  author  of  it.  I 
am  ready  whenever  you  are.” 

He  died  in  Manila,  May  13,  1903.  Next  to  that  of 
Rizal,  his  memory  is  dearest  to  the  Filipino  people. 

The  historian  and  the  philosopher  considering  these 
typical  passages  in  the  long  struggle  upward  will  see 
that,  while  ostensibly  the  Philippine  Republic  had  been 
defeated,  in  reality  it  had  triumphed.  Instead  of  being 
crushed  and  obliterated,  it  had  never  ceased  to  exist. 
To  this  day  it  is  not  a  memory  but  a  living  organism 
of  veritable  and  powerful  influence.  Its  flag  flies  side 
by  side  with  that  of  the  United  States  on  every  public 
building;  it  functions  in  effect  in  every  session  of  the 
Philippine  legislature.  So  far  as  one  can  see  now  it 
was  a  deathless  creation  that  Rizal  unconsciously 
called  into  being,  and  there  could  be  no  more  impres¬ 
sive  lesson  in  the  inevitable  destiny  of  democracy  than 
the  reflection  that  the  cruelties  intended  to  destroy 
freedom  in  the  Philippines  really  gave  to  it  enduring 
life.  When  so  easily  the  governing  class  shattered 
Rizal ’s  body  and  silenced  his  physical  voice,  it  did 
but  give  wings  to  his  teachings,  vindicating  them  at 
once  and  multiplying  them.  If  the  result  is  not  yet 
complete  and  the  Philippines  lack  still  their  national 
entity,  no  one  that  knows  their  people  and  no  one 
that  has  studied  attentively  the  significance  the  life 
and  death  of  Rizal  have  for  them  will  believe  that  this 
anomaly  can  continue.  They  live  now  under  the  sol¬ 
emn  undertaking  of  the  United  States  to  set  them  free ; 


328 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


that  pledge  they  have  accepted  at  its  face-value ;  from 
day  to  day  they  continue  in  expectation  of  its 
fulfilment. 

In  such  strange  and  fateful  ways  of  which  he  never 
dreamed,  Rizal  has  come  to  be  the  liberator  of  his 
country  and  the  inspiration  of  its  national  life.  It  is 
a  story  so  different  from  any  other  in  the  records  of 
the  human  advance  that  it  may  be  deemed  worth  the 
worlds  attention  on  its  own  account.  With  arms  and 
conflict  Washington  and  the  other  patriots  of  his  time 
freed  America,  Bolivar  and  San  Martin  freed  South 
America,  Garibaldi  and  Mazzini  freed  Italy.  With 
an  idea  and  an  ideal  Rizal  freed  the  Philippines. 

The  more  his  brief  career  is  studied  the  more  it 
appears  as  apart  from  the  ordinary  aims  and  walks 
of  men — singular,  selfless,  and  admirable.  If  while 
he  lived  he  had  little  recognition  worthy  of  his  great 
attainments,  the  veneration  of  his  countrymen  since 
his  death  has  atoned  for  all  former  indifference  any¬ 
where.  For  t'he  term  of  Spain’s  dominion  and  a  short 
time  thereafter  his  dust  remained  obscurely  buried.1 
When  peace  had  come  between  the  Americans  and  Fili¬ 
pinos  both  began  to  pay  tribute  to  his  memory.  The 
body  was  disinterred  from  its  nameless  grave  and  re¬ 
buried  with  high  honors,  civic  and  military.  When 
the  Filipinos  came  to  have  a  measure  of  control  over 
their  own  affairs  they  made  a  new  province  of  the 
region  around  Manila,  including  Calamba,  and  named 
it  Rizal.  The  anniversary  of  his  death  they  made 
the  national  holy  day.  On  the  spot  where  he  was  killed 

1  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  when  the  first  anniversary  of  his  death 
came,  December  30,  1897,  the  implacable  Interests  made  it  an  occasion 
Of  public  holiday  and  rejoicing. 


RIZAL  DAY,  DECEMBER  30,  1922 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


329 


they  erected  a  magnificent  monument,  a  stately  and 
worthy  memorial.  Elsewhere  they  multiplied  the  trib¬ 
utes  to  his  fame  until  by  1921  scarcely  a  considerable 
town  in  the  Philippines  was  without  his  statue  or  bust 
or  some  commemoration  of  his  story.  Of  the  ground 
he  had  tilled  in  Dapitan,  surrounding  the  little  house 
where  he  had  taught  his  school,  a  national  park  was 
made.  In  his  honor  the  waterworks  he  had  engineered 
were  extended  and  perpetuated.  From  every  avail¬ 
able  source  the  Government  collected,  often  at  great 
cost,  the  relics  of  his  physical  existence.1 

Each  return  of  Rizal  day  is  marked  with  elaborate 
ceremonies;  addresses  are  delivered  to  his  memory; 
the  schools  hold  special  exercises;  the  press  reviews 
his  life  and  dwells  upon  its  import.  Year  by  year  the 

1  With  other  evidences  of  gratitude  the  legislature  sought  to  bestow 
a  pension  on  Rizal ’s  mother.  The  character  of  this  extraordinary  woman 
was  revealed  again  in  her  response.  She  declined  the  pension  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  lower  the  standard  of  patriotism  observed  in  her 
family.  The  Rizals,  she  said,  did  not  serve  Filipinas  for  money. 

Jos6  Rizal ’s  father  died  soon  after  Jose’s  murder.  His  mother  lived 
to  see  the  Spanish  flag  pulled  down  and  the  power  of  the  friars  annihi¬ 
lated.  Paciano  Rizal  was  living  in  1923,  a  prosperous  farmer.  Mrs. 
Jos6  Rizal  joined  the  insurgent  army  after  her  husband’s  death  and  for 
a  short  time  appeared  with  rifle  in  hand  in  the  trenches.  Soon  afterward 
she  retired  to  a  hospital,  where  she  served  for  a  time  as  a  nurse.  She 
then  made  her  way  to  Manila,  where  she  had  a  heated  interview  with 
Governor-General  de  Rivera. —  (Foreman,  p.  388.) 

“What  did  you  go  to  Imus  for?”  inquired  the  general. 

“What  did  you  go  there  for?”  rejoined  Josephine. 

“To  fight,”  said  the  general. 

“So  did  I,”  said  Josephine. 

“Will  you  leave  Manila?”  asked  the  general. 

“Why  should  I?”  asked  Josephine. 

‘  ‘  The  friars  will  not  leave  you  alone  if  you  stay  there,  and  they  will 
bring  false  evidence  against  you.  I  have  no  power  to  overrule  theirs.” 

“Then  what  is  the  use  of  being  governor-general?” 

Because  of  her  adopted  father’s  nationality,  she  was  now  under 
American  protection;  otherwise  she  would  have  experienced  the  vengeful 
feeling  that  still  possessed  the  reigning  powers.  She  made  her  way  to 
Hong-Kong,  where,  after  a  time,  she  remarried  and  so  passed  from 
history. 


330 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


earnestness  of  these  tributes  increases.  Other  men, 
as  their  tangible  presence  recedes,  become  more  or 
less  the  lay  figures  of  history.  This  man  seems  to  be¬ 
come  with  time  only  the  more  potent  and  real. 

Happy  should  be  the  land  that  has  such  a  national 
hero,  in  whom  the  pitiless  searchings  of  later  years 
have  not  discovered  enough  of  flaw  to  discredit  any 
part  of  the  homage  paid  him  but  instead  cause  him  to 
appear  always  the  more  imposing  figure,  morally  as 
well  as  intellectually.  It  is  but  truth  to  say  that  his 
analogue  is  hard  to  find  in  any  nation  of  any  color  at 
any  period  of  history.  He  had,  what  is  so  seldom  to 
be  found  in  the  men  we  call  great,  a  union  of  brilliant 
gifts  and  of  lofty  character.  Of  him  it  is  never  nec¬ 
essary  to  offer  the  Baconian  apology;  he  was  of  the 
brightest  and  wisest  of  mankind  but  without  an  alloy¬ 
ing  trace  of  the  mean. 

Intellectually,  there  is  no  doubt  he  deserved  the 
praise  paid  wonderingly  to  him  by  Sir  Hugh  Clifford 
and  others ;  he  was  a  master  figure.  To  the  capacity 
of  his  mind  there  seemed  no  normal  limit;  he  could 
comprehend  any  subject,  learn  any  craft,  acquire  any 
language,  absorb  any  science.  It  seemed  to  be  a  mind 
of  the  order  of  Octopi,  with  tentacles  that  reached  out 
and  pumped  up  not  the  superficies  but  the  heart  of 
the  matter.  Hence  he  could  out-argue  the  learned 
theologians  with  the  most  abstruse  lore  of  their  cult, 
discuss  with  the  artists  the  recondite  principles  of 
their  art,  classify  for  entomologists  and  zoologists 
unheard-of  specimens  of  life,  thread  with  economists 
the  endless  mazes  of  theoretical  taxation,  write  exqui¬ 
site  lyrics  and  sing  them  to  music  of  his  own  compos- 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


331 


ing.  Such  are  the  facts  of  his  life,  however  reluctant 
prejudice  may  be  to  acknowledge  them.  If  there  has 
yet  appeared  upon  this  earth  what  may  be  justly  called 
a  universal  genius,  it  seems  from  the  records  that  he 
was  not  of  the  white  race,  the  world’s  confident  over- 
lords,  but  of  the  misunderstood  Malay. 

So  slowly  we  yield  to  truth  when  it  runs  counter 
to  theories  that  it  may  be  advisable  to  dwell  for  an¬ 
other  moment  on  this  man ’s  indisputable  achievements. 
Let  us  say,  then,  that  to  have  attained  to  his  mastery 
of  any  two  of  the  branches  of  knowledge  he  followed 
would  have  deserved  distinction;  yet  he  attained  to 
this  mastery  in  six  or  seven.  He  was  one  of  the  great¬ 
est  ophthalmologists  of  his  time ;  he  was  a  great  ethnol¬ 
ogist,  anthropologist,  biologist,  zoologist,  linguist;  he 
was  sculptor,  painter,  illustrator,  poet,  novelist,  pub¬ 
licist,  engineer,  educator,  reformer.  With  almost  any 
of  these  gifts  or  accomplishments  or  whatever  they 
may  be  termed,  he  could  have  won  to  eminence  or 
to  wealth  anywhere  among  civilized  men.  He  is  almost 
the  only  example  we  have  of  a  man  marvelously  en¬ 
dowed  for  material  success  and  putting  it  all  aside 
and  every  thought  of  it;  putting  aside,  too,  even  the 
natural  yearning  for  renown,  that  he  might  give  him¬ 
self  entirely  to  the  one  end  of  benefiting  his  people. 

Of  the  veritable  basis  for  these  conclusions,  so 
strange  in  an  age  and  a  world  that  makes  of  disillu¬ 
sion  a  fetish,  no  fair-minded  inquirer  can  have  a  doubt. 
It  is  but  the  truth  that  Rizal’s  private  life  has  endured 
the  touch  as  surely  as  his  public  career.1  That  govern- 

1  In  the  life  of  Rizal  the  note  of  physical  love  is  scarcely  perceived. 
Don  Isabelo  de  los  Reyes  has  written-- 


332 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


ment  of  himself  he  began  to  learn  at  the  Ateneo,  that 
scorn  of  the  revolt  of  flesh  and  fierce  determination 
to  put  it  under  the  dominion  of  spirit,  he  diligently 
fostered  all  his  life.  He  had  controversies  and  dis¬ 
putes;  he  even  had  quarrels  (as  we  have  seen)  that 
might  have  had  deadly  outcome;  it  appears  that  he 
did  not  in  any  of  these  lose  the  perfect  control  of  his 
temper.  The  contagion  of  the  world’s  slow  stain  never 
came  near  him.  He  looked  upon  life  and  all  its  phases 
with  a  coolly  reasoned  disdain  of  all  things  false.  A 
hundred  times  he  might  have  saved  himself  with  one 
only  step  that  the  world  would  have  applauded;  he 
would  not  take  that  step  because  it  would  mean  a 
compromise  with  the  stern,  iron-bound  Puritan-like 
standard  of  virtue  he  had  chosen  for  himself.  No  in¬ 
stance  has  been  discovered  in  him  of  lies  or  equivoca¬ 
tion.  As  he  himself  declared,  he  had  his  full  share 
of  human  frailties  and  failings,  but  he  managed  to 
avoid  those  that  scar  the  soul.  Some  of  his  jests,  it  is 
true,  verged  upon  practical  joking,  the  usual  contra¬ 
diction  in  men  of  a  melancholy  inclining.  The  wisdom 
of  his  marriage,  for  reasons  that  need  not  be  gone  into 
here,  is  now  rather  more  than  questionable.  On  the 
subject  of  the  capacity  of  the  Filipinos  for  immediate 
self-government  in  his  own  time,  it  seems  to  us  clear 

“I  have  said  that  he  sacrificed  even  his  natural  passions  for  his  coun¬ 
try,  because  if  Rizal  would  have  stretched  forth  his  hand  for  better  favor 
from  the  Philippines,  he  would  easily  have  received  it;  and  yet  he  did 
not  marry,  undoubtedly  so  as  not  to  bring  misfortune  on  his  family 
because  of  the  horrible  end  which  he  foresaw,  and  only  *  in  articulato 
mortis '  married  a  foreigner  who  had  been  his  sweetheart.  Thus  he  made 
patent  the  fact  that  he  did  not  hate  the  white  race,  as  his  enemies  the 
priests  claimed,  They  are  very  much  interested  in  having  it  believed 
that  the  insurrectionists  do  not  hate  them  directly,  but  the  entire  white 
race,  which  is  a  calumny,  as  are  so  many  others  that  they  are  wont  to 
invent  to  help  obtain  their  ends.  ” — Retana,  p.  338. 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


333 


he  was  gravely  in  error.  Of  the  necessity  of  higher 
education  as  a  foundation  for  independence  he  made 
far  too  much.  When  he  held  that  reforms  must  needs 
come  from  above  and  could  not  be  expected  to  be 
moved  from  below  he  must  have  overlooked  some  sure 
lessons  of  history.  That  naive  notion  of  his  earlier 
years,  that  Spain  would  for  the  asking  supplant  exploi¬ 
tation  with  altruism  was,  even  in  his  youth,  hardly 
what  men  would  expect  from  a  mind  so  original  and 
powerful,  so  sure  and  clear.  And  yet  in  all  his  rela¬ 
tions  to  and  great  services  for  his  country,  in  his 
incalculable  contributions  to  the  cause  of  eventual  lib¬ 
erty,  in  his  complex  relations  to  science,  art,  literature, 
serious  and  valuable  undertakings  for  the  elevation  of 
his  fellows,  in  great  trials  alike  and  among  the  midges 
of  everyday  existence,  the  world  may  see  in  him  the 
figure  of  a  man :  upright,  alert,  capable,  resolute, 
patient,  resourceful,  and  without  guile. 

As  to  few  men  it  has  been  given  to  bring  to  the  strug¬ 
gles  of  life  so  great  a  natural  armament,  few  also  have 
been  able  to  wield  in  so  short  a  time  a  power  so 
momentous.  To  all  the  Far  East  he  is  slowly  be¬ 
coming  a  figure  of  inspiration  and  hope.  To  the 
modern  Filipino  world  he  gave  an  impetus  and  an 
impress  it  can  hardly  lose  in  generations  if  ever.  To 
the  movement  for  Philippine  independence  he  gave  vi¬ 
tality,  character,  and  energy  that  have  grown  stronger 
year  after  year.  Even  when  we  consider  the  natural 
passion  of  the  race  for  freedom  and  the  long  succes¬ 
sion  of  revolts  with  which  it  shook  Spanish  rule,  this 
remains  substantially  true.  With  his  teachings  first, 
then  his  sarcasms  and  censures,  then  his  appeals,  he 


334 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  FILIPINOS 


showed  the  way  to  unity  and  drove  the  people  along 
it.  At  his  death  he  bequeathed  to  them  his  unquench¬ 
able  yearning  for  liberty,  while  he  gave  them  the  nec¬ 
essary  background  of  sacrifice  for  it.  Whatever  has 
been  gained  for  nationality  has  been  gained  under  this 
inspiration;  without  or  beyond  his  knowledge,  Rizal 
was  the  father  of  Philippine  independence  and  the 
lofty  model  toward  which  Philippine  life  may  aspire. 

Those  that  seek  to  disparage  the  race  (so  called)  to 
which  he  belonged  find  some  refuge  in  the  assertion 
that  he  was  a  strange  and  inexplicable  exception  to 
the  general  incompetence,  a  star  against  a  background 
of  ineptitude.  Against  this  all  just  men  will  protest. 
Elsewhere  the  great  minds  of  every  nation  have  ex¬ 
alted  that  nation  in  the  world’s  esteem.  The  single 
lives  that  make  up  so  much  of  the  historic  glory  sur¬ 
rounding  Greece,  Rome,  Italy,  Holland,  and  our  own 
Revolutionary  period  we  do  not  sharply  contrast 
against  a  darkness  of  general  inferiority  around  these 
men,  but  think  of  them  as  lighting  up  all  the  land  that 
bore  them.  Even  if  it  were  true  that  Rizal  was  the 
only  great  man  of  the  Filipino  people,  Filipinos  might 
well  claim  the  same  basis  of  judgment.  But  the  more 
the  leaders  of  the  Philippine  revolution  are  studied — 
Mabini,  Luna,  the  two  del  Pilars,  Calderon — the  more 
men  will  be  convinced  that  Rizal  was  the  highest  ex¬ 
pression  of  an  intellectual  force,  stimulated  by  the 
growing  passion  for  liberty  but  still  a  power  inherent 
in  the  race. 

A  race  that  gave  such  men  to  the  world,  that  has  at 
the  same  time  proved  so  incontestably  its  capacity 
equally  for  self-expansion  and  for  self-mastery,  may 


RESULTS  AND  INFLUENCES 


335 


well  expect  to  be  beard  when  asserting  the  foundation 
principles  of  faith  and  common  honesty,  it  faces  the 
United  States  and  in  the  circle  of  nations  demands 
the  place  it  has  earned. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  A 

Translations  of  Poems  by  Rizal 

TO  THE  PHILIPPINE  YOUTH 

Hold  high  the  brow  serene, 

O  youth,  where  now  you  stand ; 

Let  the  bright  sheen 
Of  your  grace  be  seen, 

Fair  hope  of  my  fatherland ! 

Come  now,  thou  genius  grand, 

And  bring  down  inspiration; 

With  thy  mighty  hand, 

Swifter  than  the  wind’s  violation, 
Raise  the  eager  mind  to  higher  station. 

Come  down  with  pleasing  light 
Of  art  and  science  to  the  fight, 

0  youth,  and  there  untie 
The  chains  that  heavy  lie, 

Your  spirit  free  to  blight. 

See  how  in  flaming  zone 
Amid  the  shadows  thrown, 

The  Spaniard’s  holy  hand 
A  crown’s  resplendent  band 
Proffers  to  this  Indian  land. 

Thou,  who  now  wouldst  rise 
On  wings  of  rich  emprise, 

337 


338 


APPENDICES 


Seeking  from  Olympian  skies 
Songs  of  sweetest  strain, 

Softer  than  ambrosial  rain ; 

Thou,  whose  voice  divine 
Rivals  Philomel’s  refrain, 

And  with  varied  line 
Through  the  night  benign 
Frees  mortality  from  pain; 

Thou,  who  by  sharp  strife 
Wakest  thy  mind  to  life; 

And  the  memory  bright 

Of  thy  genius’  light 

Makest  immortal  in  its  strength ; 

And  thou,  in  accents  clear 
Of  Phoebus,  to  Apelles  dear; 

Or  by  the  brush’s  magic  art 
Takest  from  nature’s  store  a  part, 

To  fix  it  on  the  simple  canvas  ’  length ; 

Go  forth,  and  then  the  sacred  fire 
Of  thy  genius  to  the  laurel  may  aspire ; 

To  spread  around  the  fame, 

And  in  victory  acclaim, 

Through  wider  spheres  the  human  name. 

Day,  0  happy  day, 

Fair  Filipinas,  for  thy  land! 

So  bless  the  Power  to-day 
That  places  in  thy  way 

This  favor  and  this  fortune  grand ! 

— Translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire. 

TO  MY  MUSE 

Invoked  no  longer  is  the  Muse, 

The  lyre  is  out  of  date ; 


APPENDICES 


339 


The  poets  it  no  longer  nse, 

And  youth  its  inspiration  now  imbues 
With  other  form  and  state. 

If  to-day  our  fancies  aught 
Of  verse  would  still  require, 

Helicon ’s  hill  remains  unsought ; 

And  without  heed  we  but  inquire, 
Why  the  coffee  is  not  brought. 

In  the  place  of  thought  sincere 
That  our  hearts  may  feel, 

We  must  seize  a  pen  of  steel, 

And  with  verse  and  line  severe 
Fling  abroad  a  jest  and  jeer. 

Muse,  that  in  the  past  inspired  me, 
And  with  songs  of  love  hast  fired  me ; 
Go  thou  now  to  dull  repose, 

For  to-day  in  sordid  prose 
I  must  earn  the  gold  that  hired  me. 

Now  must  I  ponder  deep, 

Meditate,  and  struggle  on; 

E  ’en  sometimes  I  must  weep ; 

For  he  who  love  would  keep 
Great  pain  has  undergone. 

Fled  are  the  days  of  ease, 

The  days  of  love’s  delight ; 

When  flowers  still  would  please 
And  give  to  suffering  souls  surcease 
From  pain  and  sorrow’s  blight. 

One  by  one  they  have  passed  on, 

All  I  loved  and  moved  among; 

Dead  or  married — from  me  gone, 


340 


APPENDICES 


For  all  I  place  my  heart  upon 
By  fate  adverse  are  stung. 

Go  thou,  too,  0  Muse,  depart, 

Other  regions  fairer  find; 

For  my  land  but  offers  art 
For  the  laurel,  chains  that  bind, 

For  a  temple,  prisons  blind. 

But  before  thou  leavest  me,  speak: 

Tell  me  with  thy  voice  sublime, 

Thou  couldst  ever  from  me  seek 
A  song  of  sorrow  for  the  weak, 

Defiance  to  the  tyrant’s  crime. 

— Translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire . 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  TRAVELER 

Like  to  a  leaf  that  is  fallen  and  withered, 

Tossed  by  the  tempest  from  pole  unto  pole ; 

Thus  roams  the  pilgrim  abroad  without  purpose, 
Roams  without  love,  without  country  or  soul. 

Following  anxiously  treacherous  fortune, 

Fortune  which  e  ’en  as  he  grasps  at  it  flees ; 

Vain  though  the  hopes  that  his  yearning  is  seeking, 
Yet  does  the  pilgrim  embark  on  the  seas! 

Ever  impelled  by  the  invisible  power, 

Destined  to  roam  from  the  East  to  the  West ; 

Oft  he  remembers  the  faces  of  loved  ones, 

Dreams  of  the  day  when  he,  too,  was  at  rest. 

Chance  may  assign  him  a  tomb  on  the  desert, 

Grant  him  a  final  asylum  of  peace ; 

Soon  by  the  world  and  his  country  forgotten, 

God  rest  his  soul  when  his  wanderings  cease ! 


APPENDICES 


341 


Often  the  sorrowing  pilgrim  is  envied, 

Circling  the  globe  like  a  sea-gull  above ; 

Little,  ah,  little  they  know  what  a  void 
Saddens  his  soul  by  the  absence  of  love. 

Home  may  the  pilgrim  return  in  the  future, 

Back  to  his  loved  ones  his  footsteps  he  bends ; 
Naught  will  he  find  but  the  snow  and  the  ruins, 

Ashes  of  love  and  the  tomb  of  his  friends, 

Pilgrim,  begone  !  Nor  return  more  hereafter, 

Stranger  thou  art  in  the  land  of  thy  birth ; 

Others  may  sing  of  their  love  while  rejoicing, 

Thou  once  again  must  roam  o  ’er  the  earth. 

Pilgrim,  begone !  Nor  return  more  hereafter, 

Dry  are  the  tears  that  a  while  for  thee  ran ; 

Pilgrim,  begone !  And  forget  thine  affliction, 

Loud  laughs  the  world  at  the  sorrows  of  man. 

— Translated  by  Arthur  P.  Ferguson. 

SONNET :  TO  THE  VIRGIN  MARY 

(Written  in  Manila,  about  the  year  1880) 

Dear  Mary,  soul  of  peace,  our  consolation, 

That  to  the  heavy-stricken  heart  doth  bring 
The  cool  sweet  waters  from  the  all-healing  spring, 
From  that  skied  throne  where  since  thy  coronation 
Our  hearts  are  bowed  in  tender  adoration, 

Lean  down  to  hear  my  grief’s  vague  whispering, 

And  o  ’er  me,  bruised  and  broken,  deign  to  fling 
The  shining  robe  of  thy  serene  salvation. 

Thou  art  my  mother,  placid  Mary ;  thou 
Mine  only  hope,  my  one  sure  source  of  strength. 

Wild  is  the  sea  and  inky  dark  the  night. 

One  beacon  shines ! — the  star  upon  thy  brow. 


342 


APPENDICES 


Sharp  sin  assails  me ;  but  thy  look  at  length 
Puts  sin  and  grief  and  thoughts  of  death  to  flight ! 

— Translated  by  C.  E.  R. 

MY  RETREAT 

By  the  spreading  beach  where  the  sands  are  soft  and  fine, 
At  the  foot  of  the  mount  in  its  mantle  of  green, 

I  have  built  my  hut  in  the  pleasant  grove ’s  confine ; 
Prom  the  forest  seeking  peace  and  a  calmness  divine, 
Rest  for  the  weary  brain  and  silence  to  my  sorrow  keen. 

Its  roof  the  frail  palm-leaf  and  its  floor  the  cane, 

Its  beams  and  posts  of  the  unhewn  wood; 

Little  there  is  of  value  in  this  hut  so  plain, 

And  better  by  far  in  the  lap  of  the  mount  to  have  lain, 

By  the  song  and  the  murmur  of  the  high  sea’s  flood. 

A  purling  brook  from  the  woodland  glade 
Drops  down  o  ’er  the  stones  and  around  it  sweeps, 

Whence  a  fresh  stream  is  drawn  by  the  rough  cane ’s  aid ; 
That  in  the  still  night  its  murmur  has  made, 

And  in  the  day’s  heat  a  crystal  fountain  leaps. 

When  the  sky  is  serene  how  gently  it  flows, 

And  its  zither  unseen  ceaselessly  plays ; 

But  when  the  rains  fall  a  torrent  it  goes 
Boiling  and  foaming  through  the  rocky  close. 

Roaring  unchecked  to  the  sea’s  wide  ways. 

The  howl  of  the  dog  and  the  song  of  the  bird, 

And  only  the  kalaw’s  hoarse  call  resound; 

Nor  is  the  voice  of  vain  man  to  be  heard, 

My  mind  to  harness  or  my  steps  to  begird ; 

The  woodlands  alone  and  the  sea  wrap  me  round. 


APPENDICES 


343 


The  sea,  ah,  the  sea !  for  me  it  is  all, 

As  it  massively  sweeps  from  the  worlds  apart ; 

Its  smile  in  the  morn  to  my  soul  is  a  call, 

And  when  in  the  even  my  faith  seems  to  pall, 

It  breathes  with  its  sadness  an  echo  to  my  heart. 

By  night  an  arcanum ;  when  translucent  it  glows, 

All  spangled  over  with  its  millions  of  lights, 

And  the  bright  sky  above  resplendent  shows; 

While  the  waves  with  their  sighs  tell  of  their  woes — 
Tales  that  are  lost  as  they  roll  to  the  heights. 

They  tell  of  the  world  when  the  first  dawn  broke, 

And  the  sunlight  over  their  surface  played ; 

When  thousands  of  beings  from  nothingness  woke, 

To  people  the  depths  and  the  heights  to  cloak, 
Wherever  its  life-giving  kiss  was  laid. 

But  when  in  the  night  the  wild  waves  awake, 

And  the  waves  in  their  fury  begin  to  leap, 

Through  the  air  rush  the  cries  that  my  mind  shake ; 
Voices  that  pray,  songs  and  moans  that  partake 
Of  laments  from  the  souls  sunk  down  in  the  deep. 

Then  from  their  heights  the  mountains  groan, 

And  the  trees  shiver  tremulous  from  great  unto  least ; 
The  groves  rustle  plaintive  and  the  herds  utter  moan, 
For  they  say  that  the  ghosts  of  the  folk  that  are  gone 
Are  calling  them  down  to  their  death *s  merry  feast. 

In  terror  and  confusion  whispers  the  night, 

While  blue  and  green  flames  flit  over  the  deep ; 

But  calm  reigns  again  with  the  morning’s  light, 

And  soon  the  bold  fisherman  comes  into  sight, 

As  his  bark  rushes  on  and  the  waves  sink  to  sleep. 


344 


APPENDICES 


So  onward  glide  the  days  in  my  lonely  abode; 

Driven  forth  from  the  world  where  once  I  was  known 
I  muse  o  ’er  the  fate  upon  me  bestowed ; 

A  fragment  forgotten  that  the  moss  will  corrode, 

To  hide  from  mankind  the  world  in  me  shown. 

I  live  in  the  thought  of  the  lov’d  ones  left, 

And  oft  their  names  to  my  mind  are  borne; 

Some  have  forsaken  me  and  some  by  death  are  reft ; 
But  now  ’t  is  all  one,  as  through  the  past  I  drift, 
That  past  that  from  me  can  never  be  torn. 

For  it  is  the  friend  that  is  with  me  always, 

That  ever  in  sorrow  keeps  the  faith  in  my  soul ; 

While  through  the  still  night  it  watches  and  prays, 
As  here  in  my  exile  in  my  lone  hut  it  stays, 

To  strengthen  my  faith  when  doubts  o’er  me  roll. 

That  faith  I  keep  and  I  hope  to  see  shine 
The  day  when  the  Idea  prevails  over  might; 

When  after  the  fray  and  death’s  slow  decline, 

Some  other  voice  sounds,  far  happier  than  mine, 

To  raise  the  glad  song  of  the  triumph  of  right. 

I  see  the  sky  glow,  refulgent  and  clear, 

As  when  it  forced  on  me  my  first  dear  illusion ; 

I  feel  the  same  wind  kiss  my  forehead  sere, 

And  the  fire  is  the  same  that  is  burning  here 
To  stir  up  youth’s  blood  in  boiling  confusion. 

I  breathe  here  the  winds  that  perchance  have  pass’d 
O  ’er  the  fields  and  the  rivers  of  my  own  natal  shore ; 
And  mayhap  they  will  bring  on  the  returning  blast 
The  sighs  that  lov’d  being  upon  them  has  cast — 
Messages  sweet  from  the  first  love  I  bore. 


APPENDICES 

To  see  the  same  moon,  all  silver’d  as  of  yore, 

I  feel  the  sad  thoughts  within  me  arise ; 

The  fond  recollectioiis  of  the  troth  we  swore, 

Of  the  field  and  the  bower  and  the  wide  sea-shore, 
The  blushes  of  joy,  with  the  silence  and  sighs. 

A  butterfly  seeking  the  flowers  and  the  light, 

Of  other  lands  dreaming,  of  vaster  extent ; 

Scarce  a  youth,  from  home  and  love  I  took  flight, 

To  wander  unheeding,  free  from  doubt  or  affright — 
So  in  foreign  lands  were  my  brightest  days  spent. 

I,  when  like  a  languishing  bird  I  was  fain 

To  the  home  of  my  fathers  and  my  love  to  return, 

Of  a  sudden  the  fierce  tempest  roar ’d  amain ; 

So  I  saw  my  wings  shatter’d  and  no  home  remain, 
My  trust  sold  to  others  and  wrecks  round  me  burn. 

Hurl ’d  out  into  exile  from  the  land  I  adore, 

My  future  all  dark  and  no  refuge  to  seek; 

My  roseate  dreams  hover  round  me  once  more, 

Sole  treasures  of  all  that  life  to  me  bore ; 

The  faiths  of  youth  that  with  sincerity  speak. 

But  not  as  of  old,  full  of  life  and  of  grace, 

Do  you  hold  out  hopes  of  undying  rewTard ; 

Sadder  I  find  you ;  on  your  lov ’d  face, 

Though  still  sincere,  the  pale  lines  trace 
The  marks  of  the  faith  it  is  yours  to  guard. 

You  offer  now,  dreams,  my  gloom  to  appease, 

And  the  years  of  my  youth  again  to  disclose ; 

So  I  thank  you,  0  storm,  and  heaven-born  breeze, 
That  you  knew  of  the  hour  my  wild  flight  to  ease, 

To  cast  me  back  down  to  the  soil  whence  I  rose. 


345 


346 


APPENDICES 


By  the  spreading  beach  where  the  sands  are  soft  and  fine, 
At  the  foot  of  the  mount  in  the  pleasant  grove ’s  confine, 

I  have  found  a  home  in  its  mantle  of  green, 

In  the  shady  woods,  that  peace  and  calmness  divine, 

Rest  for  the  weary  brain  and  silence  to  my  sorrow  keen. 

— Translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire. 

TO  THE  FLOWERS  OF  HEIDELBERG 

Go  to  my  native  land,  go,  foreign  flowers. 

Sown  by  the  traveler  on  his  way ; 

And  there,  beneath  its  azure  sky, 

Where  all  of  my  affections  lie; 

There  from  the  weary  pilgrim  say, 

What  faith  is  his  in  that  land  of  ours! 

Go  there  and  tell  how  when  the  dawn, 

Her  early  light  diffusing, 

Your  petals  first  flung  open  wide; 

His  steps  beside  chill  Neckar  drawn, 

You  see  him  silent  by  your  side, 

Upon  its  Spring  perennial  musing. 

Saw  how  when  morning’s  light, 

All  your  fragrance  stealing, 

Whispers  to  you  as  in  mirth 
Playful  songs  of  love’s  delight, 

He,  too,  murmurs  his  love ’s  feeling 
In  the  tongue  he  learned  at  birth. 

That  when  the  sun  on  Koenigstuhl ’s  height 
Pours  out  its  golden  flood, 

And  with  its  slowly  warming  light 
Gives  life  to  vale  and  grove  and  wood, 

He  greets  that  sun,  here  only  upraising, 

Which  in  his  native  land  is  at  its  zenith  blazing. 


APPENDICES 


347 


And  tell  there  of  that  day  he  stood, 

Near  to  a  ruin ’d  castle  gray, 

By  Neckar’s  banks,  or  shady  wood, 

And  pluck’d  you  from  beside  the  way; 

Tell,  too,  the  tale  to  you  addressed, 

And  how  with  tender  care, 

Your  bending  leaves  he  press’d 
’Twixt  pages  of  some  volume  rare. 

Bear  then,  0  flowers,  love ’s  message  bear ; 

My  love  to  all  the  lov’d  ones  there, 

Peace  to  my  country — fruitful  land — 

Faith  whereon  its  sons  may  stand, 

And  virtue  for  its  daughters’  care; 

All  those  beloved  creatures  greet, 

That  still  around  home’s  altar  meet. 

And  when  you  come  unto  its  shore, 

This  kiss  I  now  on  you  bestow, 

Fling  where  the  winged  breezes  blow ; 

That  borne  on  them  it  may  hover  o’er 
All  that  I  love,  esteem,  and  adore. 

But  though,  0  flowers,  you  come  unto  that  land, 
And  still  perchance  your  colors  hold ; 

So  far  from  this  heroic  strand, 

Whose  soil  first  bade  your  life  unfold, 

Still  here  your  fragrance  will  expand ; 

Your  soul  that  never  quits  the  earth 
Whose  light  smiled  on  you  at  your  birth. 

— Translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire. 

YOU  ASK  ME  FOR  VERSES 

You  bid  me  now  to  strike  the  lyre, 

That  mute  and  torn  so  long  has  lain : 

And  yet  I  cannot  wake  the  strain, 


348 


APPENDICES 


Nor  will  the  Muse  one  note  inspire ! 

Coldly  it  shakes  in  accents  dire, 

As  if  my  soul  itself  to  wring, 

And  when  its  sound  seems  but  to  fling 
A  jest  at  its  own  low  lament ; 

So  in  sad  isolation  pent, 

My  soul  can  neither  feel  nor  sing. 

There  was  a  time — ah,  ’t  is  too  :true — 

But  that  time  long  ago  has  past — 

When  upon  me  the  Muse  had  cast 
Indulgent  smile  and  friendship ’s  due  ; 

But  of  that  age  now  all  too  few 
The  thoughts  that  with  me  yet  will  stay ; 
As  from  the  hours  of  festive  play 
There  linger  on  mysterious  notes, 

And  in  our  minds  the  memory  floats 
Of  minstrelsy  and  music  gay. 

A  plant  I  am,  that  scarcely  grown, 

Was  torn  from  out  its  Eastern  bed, 
Where  all  around  perfume  is  shed, 

And  life  but  as  a  dream  is  known ; 

The  land  that  I  can  call  my  own, 

By  me  forgotten  ne’er  to  be, 

Where  trilling  birds  their  song  taught  me, 
And  cascades  with  their  ceaseless  roar, 

And  all  along  the  spreading  shore 
The  murmurs  of  the  sounding  sea. 

While  yet  in  childhood’s  happy  day, 

I  learned  upon  its  sun  to  smile, 

And  in  my  breast  there  seems  the  while 
Seething  volcanic  fires  to  play. 

A  bard  I  was,  my  wish  alway 


APPENDICES 


349 


To  call  upon  the  fleeting  wind, 

With  all  the  force  of  verse  and  mind : 

1 1  Go  forth,  and  spread  around  its  flame, 

From  zone  to  zone  with  glad  acclaim, 

And  earth  to  heaven  together  bind!’ ’ 

But  it  I  left,  and  now  no  more — 

Like  a  tree  that  is  broken  and  sere — 

My  natal  gods  bring  the  echo  clear 
Of  songs  that  in  past  times  they  bore ; 

Wide  seas  I  cross’d  to  foreign  shore, 

With  hope  of  change  and  other  fate; 

My  folly  was  made  clear  too  late, 

For  in  the  place  of  good  I  sought 
The  seas  reveal’d  unto  me  naught, 

But  made  death’s  specter  on  me  wait. 

All  these  fond  fancies  that  were  mine, 

All  love,  all  feeling,  all  emprise, 

Were  left  beneath  the  sunny  skies, 

Which  o  ’er  that  flowery  region  shine ; 

So  press  no  more  that  plea  of  thine, 

For  songs  of  love  from  out  a  heart 
That  coldly  lies  a  thing  apart; 

Since  now  with  tortur’d  soul  I  haste 
Unresting  o’er  the  desert  waste, 

And  lifeless  gone  is  all  the  art. 

— Translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire 

MY  LAST  FAREWELL 

Farewell,  dear  Fatherland,  clime  of  the  sun  caress’d, 

Pearl  of  the  Orient  seas,  our  Eden  lost ! 

Gladly  now  I  go  to  give  thee  this  faded  life’s  best, 

And  were  it  brighter,  fresher,  or  more  blest, 

Still  would  I  give  it  thee,  nor  count  the  cost. 


t 


350 


APPENDICES 


On  the  field  of  battle,  ’mid  the  frenzy  of  fight, 

Others  have  given  their  lives,  without  doubt  or  heed ; 

The  place  matters  not — cypress  or  laurel  or  lily  white, 
Scaffold  or  open  plain,  combat  or  martyrdom’s  plight, 

’T  is  ever  the  same,  to  serve  our  home  and  country’s  need. 

I  die  just  when  I  see  the  dawn  break, 

Through  the  gloom  of  night,  to  herald  the  day ; 

And  if  color  is  lacking  my  blood  thou  shalt  take, 

Pour’d  out  at  need  for  thy  dear  sake, 

To  dye  with  its  crimson  the  waking  ray. 

My  dreams,  when  life  first  opened  to  me, 

My  dreams,  when  the  hopes  of  youth  beat  high,  * 

Were  to  see  thy  lov’d  face,  O  gem  of  the  Orient  sea, 

Prom  gloom  and  grief,  from  care  and  sorrow  free ; 

No  blush  on  thy  brow,  no  tear  in  thine  eye. 

Dream  of  my  life,  my  living  and  burning  desire, 

$ 

All  hail !  cries  the  soul  that  is  now  to  take  flight ; 

All  hail !  And  sweet  it  is  for  thee  to  expire ; 

To  die  for  thy  sake,  that  thou  mayst  aspire; 

And  sleep  in  thy  bosom  eternity’s  long  night. 

If  over  my  grave  some  day  thou  seest  grow, 

In  the  grassy  sod,  a  humble  flower, 

Draw  it  to  thy  lips  and  kiss  my  soul  so, 

While  I  may  feel  on  my  brow  in  the  cold  tomb  below 
The  touch  of  thy  tenderness,  thy  breath’s  warm  power. 

Let  the  moon  beam  over  me  soft  and  serene, 

Let  the  dawn  shed  over  me  its  radiant  flashes, 

Let  the  wind  with  sad  lament  over  me  keen ; 

And  if  on  my  cross  a  bird  should  be  seen, 

Let  it  trill  there  its  hymn  of  peace  to  my  ashes. 


APPENDICES 


351 


Let  the  sun  draw  the  vapors  up  to  the  sky, 

And  heavenward  in  purity  bear  my  tardy  protest ; 

Let  some  kind  soul  o  ’er  my  untimely  fate  sigh, 

And  in  the  still  evening  a  prayer  be  lifted  on  high 
From  thee,  0  my  country,  that  in  God  I  may  rest. 

Pray  for  all  those  that  hapless  have  died, 

For  all  who  have  suffered  the  unmeasur’d  pain; 

For  our  mothers  that  bitterly  their  woes  have  cried, 

For  widows  and  orphans,  for  captives  by  torture  tried; 
And  then  for  thyself  that  redemption  thou  mayst  gain. 

And  when  the  dark  night  wraps  the  graveyard  around, 
With  only  the  dead  in  their  vigil  to  see ; 

Break  not  my  repose  or  the  mystery  profound, 

And  perchance  thou  mayst  hear  a  sad  hymn  resound ; 

’T  is  I,  O  my  country,  raising  a  song  unto  thee. 

When  even  my  grave  is  remembered  no  more, 

Unmark ’d  by  never  a  cross  nor  a  stone ; 

Let  the  plow  sweep  through  it,  the  spade  turn  it  o  ’er, 
That  my  ashes  may  carpet  thy  earthly  floor, 

Before  into  nothingness  at  last  they  are  blown. 

Then  will  oblivion  bring  to  me  no  care, 

As  over  thy  vales  and  plains  I  sweep ; 

Throbbing  and  cleansed  in  thy  space  and  air, 

With  color  and  light,  with  song  and  lament  I  fare, 

Ever  repeating  the  faith  that  I  keep. 

My  Fatherland  ador’d,  that  sadness  to  my  sorrow  lends, 
Beloved  Filipinas,  hear  now  my  last  good-by ! 

I  give  thee  all:  parents  and  kindred  and  friends; 

For  I  go  where  no  slave  before  the  oppressor  bends, 
Where  faith  can  never  kill,  and  God  reigns  e  ’er  on  high ! 


352 


APPENDICES 


Farewell  to  yon  all,  from  my  soul  torn  away, 

Friends  of  my  childhood  in  the  home  dispossessed ! 

Give  thanks  that  I  rest  from  the  wearisome  day ! 

Farewell  to  thee,  too,  sweet  friend  that  lightened  my  way; 
Beloved  creatures  all,  farewell !  In  death  there  is  rest ! 

— Translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire. 

TO  EDUCATION 

That  goddess  of  garnered  ages  that  sows 
For  flowers  of  virtue  perennial  seeds, 

As  upward  dispensing  her  light  she  goes, 

Handfast  the  fatherland,  too,  she  leads. 

The  breath  of  her  quickening  summons  she  blows 
Like  winds  that  bear  life  to  the  blossomless  meads, 

And  Wisdom  along  her  pathway  upsprings 
And  Hope  is  revived  in  new  bourgeonings. 

Ay,  she  has  put  by  for  this  fatherland 
The  mortal  allures  of  sleep  and  of  rest, 

To  weave  green  laurels  with  her  white  hand 
On  the  forehead  of  Science  or  Art  to  be  prest ! 

If  on  some  aureate  morrow  we  stand 
Forth  gazing  as  one  from  a  mountain’s  crest, 

Her  spirit  that  led  us  from  steep  to  steep 
There  will  our  faltering  footsteps  keep. 

Wherever  her  gleaming  white  throne  may  arise, 

There  with  bared  brow  goes  resolute  youth ; 

Error  gives  back  from  the  glance  of  her  eyes, 

Larger  and  luminous  made  with  Truth  ; 

Vice  before  her  cowering  lies, 

Pallid  and  hurtless,  with  Crime  the  uncouth. 

For  she  has  a  magic  all  potent  to  make 
Wild  nations  tamest  for  her  sweet  sake. 


APPENDICES 


353 


Beneath  that  throne  the  fountain  is  flowing 
That  waters  the  plants,  the  forests,  the  plains ; 

Her  placid  abundance  for  ever  outgoing 
For  ever  increases  the  store  that  remains; 

In  the  groves  that  along  her  rivers  are  growing 
The  spell  of  her  quiet  loveliness  reigns ; 

If  thence  to  rude  conflict  the  summons  sound 
In  her  is  man’s  ultimate  triumph  found. 

In  her  lips  is  all  lore  to  hearten  and  guide 
The  pilgrim  that  heavenward  plods  his  way, 

In  her  spirit  a  voice  sagacious  to  chide 
Him  that  has  purpose  but  for  a  day ; 

As  a  shore  lashed  vainly  of  impotent  tides 
Is  her  faith  that  knows  not  of  fear  or  dismay, 

As  she  rises  with  hand  outstretched  toward  the  portals 
Where  beckon  the  vistas  celestial  to  mortals. 

Where  misery  sits  in  its  darkness  and  need, 

Behold  her  lighting  the  living  flame ; 

She  fetters  the  filching  fingers  of  Greed, 

Gives  joy  for  sorrow  and  honor  for  shame. 

Who  takes  to  his  heart  her  uttermost  creed 
Makes  nobler  his  life  and  loftier  his  aim, 

And  hers  is  the  cool  and  dextrous  art 

i 

That  heals  the  old  hurts  in  the  generous  heart. 

The  lighthouse  stands  on  the  eternal  rock 
By  the  storm-harried  seas  oft  beaten  and  battered ; 

The  hurricane  bellows,  the  mad  waves  shock — 

On  its  stirless  walls  they  rise  and  are  shattered, 

Till  Ocean  drives  back  his  disorderly  flock 
By  their  futile  assailings  affrighted  and  scattered. 

So  with  this  goddess  it  is,  whose  light 
Ill  cannot  dim  through  the  stormiest  night. 


354 


APPENDICES 


Sapphires  might  serve  of  her  splendors  to  tell, 

Or  diamonds  weigh  out  the  worth  of  her  glory, 

And  still  fall  short  of  the  virtues  that  swell 
In  the  breasts  of  her  sons  that  have  mastered  her  story. 
From  flowers  of  her  planting,  their  sight  or  their  smell, 
Vanishes  Self,  foul,  haggard,  and  hoary, 

But  boundless  her  blessings  on  them  whose  thought 
Traces  the  plan  that  the  Nazarene  wrought. 

Around  the  ocean’s  chrysoprase  brim 
The  Dawn,  approaching,  broadcast  will  send 
Purple  and  scarlet,  now  bright  and  once  dim, 

And  yet  their  gorgeous  painting  suspend 
When  the  sun  draws  nigh,  and  in  honor  of  him 
Show  nothing  but  golden.  So  shall  ascend 
The  goddess  of  knowledge  and  pour  from  above 
Transfiguring  light  on  the  land  we  love. 

— Translated  by  C.  E.  R . 


APPENDIX  B 


RIZAL  AS  A  PATRIOT,  AUTHOR,  AND  SCIENTIST 

By  Francis  Burton  Harrison,  Governor-General  1915-21 

[Of  all  the  governor-generals  the  Philippines  have  had,  Mr. 
Harrison  was  the  most  beloved  by  the  islanders.  He  seemed 
to  have  an  instinctive  sympathy  with  them  and  after  his  re¬ 
tirement  from  office  testified  to  their  worth  in  a  remarkable 
book,  “The  Cornerstone  of  Philippine  Independence.”  The 
comments  that  follow  are  extracts  from  an  address  he  deliv¬ 
ered  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  Rizal  Hall,  Philippine 
University,  December  15,  1919.] 

Addressing  a  university  audience,  I  have  selected  three 
points  in  the  life  and  writing  of  Dr.  Rizal  for  your  considera¬ 
tion.  First  is  his  patriotism.  This  university  must  devote  its 
best  efforts  to  teaching  the  students  of  to-day  and  those  of 
coming  generations  that  form  of  pure  and  unselfish  patriotism 
that  we  find  in  the  writings  and  sayings  of  Dr.  Rizal.  We 
have  been  gratified  to  follow  the  course  in  debate  and  in  ac¬ 
tion  of  the  students  of  this  university  in  devoting  their  atten¬ 
tion  in  a  purely  non-partizan  way  to  the  consideration  of 
public  questions  of  the  day,  but  I  address  myself  to  the 
faculty  as  well  as  to  the  students  for  consideration  of  the  form 
which  that  patriotism  should  take.  In  the  days  of  my  grand¬ 
father  young  men  in  America  went  to  Germany  to  study  at 
the  universities.  That  was  the  golden  age  when  the  teachings 
and  memory  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Lessing,  and  Heine  inspired 
the  youth  of  the  land  and  brought  about  a  political  movement 
that  was  crushed  and  ended  in  1848  in  the  death  of  liberalism 
and  the  beginning  of  modern  autocracy.  Those  of  us  that 

355 


356 


APPENDICES 


were  educated  in  German  literature  can  scarcely  understand 
the  Germany  of  the  last  three  decades,  and  yet,  in  my  opinion, 
their  devotion  to  the  religion  of  brutality  and  force  is  to  be 
found  in  the  teachings  of  their  modern  university  professors 
— an  example  that  has  terrified  all  mankind  and  threatened 
the  liberties  of  the  world.  So  I  say  the  teaching  of  pure 
patriotism  must  always  be  dedicated  to  the  promotion  of 
liberties,  the  liberty  of  thought,  of  the  individual,  to  the  care 
of  the  welfare  of  the  common  people,  and  for  the  progress 
and  advancement  in  modern  science  of  learning  of  the  people 
of  the  Philippine  Islands. 

The  literary  aspect  of  Rizal’s  works  should  commend  itself 
to  each  of  you  as  an  inspiration  to  do  your  own  duty.  I  think 
no  man  can  read  Rizal’s  novels  without  feeling  his  powerful 
impulse  of  sympathy  for  and  understanding  of  the  people  of 
this  country.  We  can  be  moved  not  only  by  his  profound 
reading  of  human  nature,  but  we  can  also  be  inspired  to  emu¬ 
late,  if  we  may,  the  high  level  of  talent  for  which  his  name 
will  ever  be  famous  in  the  history  of  literature.  Here  in  the 
Philippines  I  would,  if  I  could,  arouse  you  to  more  earnest 
devotion  to  a  literary  career.  You  have  natural  advantages 
second  to  no  country  in  the  world.  Your  history  is  replete 
with  incidents  and  romance  and  your  present  latter-day  de¬ 
velopment  is  a  true  inspiration  to  the  youth  of  the  world  in 
all  countries.  Last  winter  when  I  returned  to  New  York  for 
my  first  vacation  home  I  remember  one  particularly  dark  and 
gloomy  day  when  the  people  on  the  streets,  which  are  nothing 
more  than  canons  between  high  buildings  of  stone  and  glass, 
were  jostling  one  another  without  a  spark  of  human  sympathy 
or  appreciation,  conscious  competitors  in  the  struggle  for  the 
survival  of  the  fittest ;  and  my  mind  went  back  to  those  scenes 
of  every-day  life  in  the  Philippines,  to  this  land  of  lofty 
mountains,  of  clear  water  running  to  the  sea,  the  sunsets 
across  Mariveles  Mountain,  the  dawn  over  Mount  Arayat,  the 
blue  haze  upon  the  rice-fields  in  the  evening — all  the  familiar 


APPENDICES 


357 


scenes  and  sounds  of  a  life  animate  by  the  sun  and  made 
happy  by  the  richness  of  nature.  As  I  remembered  the  deep 
and  tender  lights  of  the  coconut  groves  and  the  busy  industry 
of  your  daily  life,  I  said  to  myself,  ‘  ‘  There  is  a  country  which 
could  inspire  any  man  to  literary  efforts  with  all  its  wealth  of 
romance.’ ’  When  I  recall  the  history  of  the  Philippine 
Islands,  the  coming  of  the  Christians  with  the  sword  and 
flaming  cross,  the  coming  of  the  Mohammedans,  with  the 
crescent  and  the  crooked  creese  and  their  cry  in  many  a  hard- 
fought  battle,  the  enterprise  of  the  Spaniard  in  spiritual 
teachings  as  well  as  in  material  investments,  the  shouts  of 
Legaspi’s  sailors  across  Manila  Bay,  the  guns  of  Dewey  so 
many  generations  later,  the  efforts  of  our  country  to  establish 
here  our  principles  of  democracy,  it  seems  to  me  that  any 
young  man  or  woman  born  upon  this  soil  and  inspired  by 
these  ideas  has  an  opportunity  to  take  a  place  in  the  very 
foremost  ranks  of  literature  and  history  and  show  to  the 
world  not  only  what  has  been  done  here  in  education  but  what 
the  world  may  expect  of  the  Filipino  people  when  they  take 
their  rank  as  an  independent  member  of  the  brotherhood  of 
nations. 

In  the  scientific  aspect  of  his  teachings  Rizal  ranked  high 
in  public  appreciation,  higher  indeed  in  other  countries  than 
at  that  time  he  was  allowed  to  rank  here.  He  was  recognized 
for  his  scientific  work  in  ethnology,  in  zoology,  and  in  botany 
in  England  and  in  the  leading  universities  of  Germany.  Upon 
his  death,  the  most  distinguished  scientist  in  Germany  of  that 
day,  Professor  Virchow,  stated  that  this  was  a  murder  of  the 
most  prominent  scientist  that  Spain  possessed.  In  my  opinion 
Rizal ’s  greatest  services  to  the  cause  of  the  human  race  were 
those  scientific  impulses  which  he  gave  to  the  world  of  his 
duty,  and  the  martyrdom  which  he  suffered  was  but  another 
example  of  the  determination  of  organized  society  in  every 
age  to  eliminate  those  that  by  the  pure  processes  of  reason 
have  arrived  at  new  theories  for  the  conduct  and  welfare  of 


358 


APPENDICES 


mankind.  From  the  day  of  Socrates,  who  was  put  to  death 
by  the  citizens  of  Athens  for  teaching  the  young  men  to  think 
for  themselves,  down  to  that  morning  in  December,  1896, 
when  Rizal  was  done  to  death  by  the  firing-squad  at  Bagum- 
bayan,  the  pages  of  history  have  run  red  with  the  murder  of 
men  of  science.  In  Europe  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  names  of 
Roger  Bacon,  Giordano  Bruno,  Galileo,  Agrippa,  Campanella, 
Kepler,  Lavoisier,  of  Priestly,  and  many  others  of  less  dis¬ 
tinction  in  the  annals  of  history  have  shown  what  struggles 
the  human  mind  has  been  called  upon  to  endure  and  to  what 
stress  the  human  body  has  been  put  in  the  efforts  of  science 
to  liberate  the  human  mind.  .  .  . 

Bearing  all  these  things  in  mind,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  can 
justly  appreciate  Rizal ’s  love  of  science  and  his  final  martyr¬ 
dom  as  the  greatest  contribution  to  the  freedom  of  thought 
ever  given  by  any  one  man  to  the  Filipino  people.  This  hall 
which  we  are  about  to  dedicate,  reserved  as  it  is  to  be  for  the 
study  of  science,  is  the  most  fitting  monument  to  the  name  of 
Rizal  that  could  be  devised.  Were  he  alive  to-day  I  have  no 
doubt  he  would  feel  an  infinitely  greater  inspiration  in  the 
thought  that  his  name  was  to  be  attached  to  this  great  edifice 
and  that  his  memory  was  to  be  preserved  by  the  study  of 
young  Filipinos,  men  and  women,  in  the  natural  sciences  than 
he  would  be  in  that  splendid  statue  erected  down  there  on  the 
Bagumbayan  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  his  patriotic  death. 

Now,  my  friends,  in  dedicating  this  edifice  to  progress,  I 
believe  that  it  will  stand  for  progress  as  long  as  the  Filipino 
people  themselves  remain  progressive  and  as  long  as  you  will 
fight  the  battle  for  liberty  of  thought  and  of  reason,  and,  I 
believe,  also,  that  Dr.  Rizal,  if  he  has  any  conscious  knowledge 
in  those  ethereal  spaces  to  which  his  soul  has  been  summoned, 
will  summon  the  youth  of  his  beloved  country  to  dare  all,  to 
endure  all,  and,  if  needs  be,  to  suffer  all  that  he  himself  had 
dared,  endured,  or  suffered  in  order  that  science  may  not 
perish  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 


APPENDIX  C 

REPRESENTATIVE  COOPER’S  TRIBUTE 

Delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Washington, 

June  19,  1902 

It  has  been  said  that  if  American  institutions  had  done 
nothing  else  than  furnish  to  the  world  the  character  of  George 
Washington,  that  alone  would  entitle  them  to  the  respect  of 
mankind.  So,  sir,  I  say  to  all  those  that  denounce  the  Fili¬ 
pinos  indiscriminately  as  barbarians  and  savages,  without 
possibility  of  a  civilized  future,  that  this  despised  race  proved 
itself  entitled  to  their  respect  and  to  the  respect  of  mankind 
when  it  furnished  to  the  world  the  character  of  Jose  Rizal. 

[Mr.  Cooper  then  recited  to  the  House  Rizal ’s  “Last  Fare¬ 
well’  ’  as  described  on  a  foregoing  page.  The  profound  silence 
that  fell  upon  the  chamber  at  the  end  of  this  recital  he  broke 
by  saying:] 

Pirates  !  Barbarians !  Savages !  Incapable  of  civilization ! 
How  many  of  the  civilized  Caucasian  slanderers  of  his  race 
could  ever  be  capable  of  thoughts  like  these,  which  on  that 
awful  night,  as  he  sat  alone  amidst  silence  unbroken  save  by 
the  rustling  of  the  black  plumes  of  the  death  angel  at  his 
side,  poured  from  the  soul  of  the  martyred  Filipino?  Search 
the  long  and  bloody  roll  of  the  world ’s  heroic  dead,  and  where, 
on  what  soil,  under  what  sky,  did  Tyranny  ever  claim  a  nobler 
victim  ?  Sir,  the  future  is  not  without  hope  for  a  people  that, 
from  the  midst  of  such  an  environment,  has  furnished  to  the 
world  a  character  so  lofty  and  so  pure  as  that  of  Jose  Rizal. 


359 


APPENDIX  D 


RIZAL ’s  VIEWS  ON  THE  RACE  PROBLEM 

Prom  an  Article  on  Rizal  in  the  ‘  ‘  International  Archiv  fiir 
Ethnographie, *  ’  by  Ferdinand  Blumentritt,  in  part  translated 
and  abridged  by  R.  L.  Packard  in  the  “Popular  Science 
Monthly,”  July,  1902. 

Rizal  devoted  himself  particularly  to  the  analysis  of  the 
sentiments  with  which  the  white  and  the  colored  races  mu¬ 
tually  regard  each  other.  No  one  was  so  well  qualified  as  he 
to  study  this  question,  which  is  of  such  importance  to  folk- 
psychology,  for  he  was  of  himself  of  a  colored  race,  had  lived 
among  his  fellow-countrymen  at  his  own  home  as  well  as 
among  the  whites,  those  of  mixed  bloods,  and  other  classes  at 
Manila,  and  had  besides  come  to  know  Hong-Kong,  Japan, 
Europe,  and  the  United  States  and  that  in  a  thorough  way 
and  not  as  a  mere  tourist.  His  extensive  acquaintance  with 
languages  opened  for  him  the  ethnological  writings  of  all 
civilized  nations,  and  his  penetrating  intellect  prevented  him 
from  remaining  content  with  the  surface  of  things.  It  should 
be  said,  however,  that  Rizal  concerned  himself  wholly  with 
the  relations  between  the  white  and  the  colored  peoples  of  the 
Pacific  because,  as  he  explained,  he  knew  nothing  of  the  psy¬ 
chology  of  other  colored  races. 

He  said  that  as  a  boy  he  was  deeply  sensible  that  the 
Spaniards  treated  him  with  contemptuous  disregard  for  the 
sole  reason  that  he  was  a  Filipino.  From  the  moment  when  he 
discovered  this  attitude  of  theirs  he  endeavored  to  find  out 
what  right  the  Spaniards  and  the  other  whites  generally  had 
to  look  down  upon  people  who  think  as  they  think,  study 

360 


APPENDICES 


361 


the  same  things  they  study,  and  have  the  same  mental  ca¬ 
pacity  they  possess,  simply  because  these  people  have  a  brown 
skin  and  stiff,  straight  hair. 

Europeans  regard  themselves  as  the  sovereign  masters  of 
the  earth,  the  only  supporters  of  progress  and  culture  and  th6 
sole  legitimate  species  of  the  genus  Homo  sapiens,  while  they 
proclaim  that  all  other  races  are  inferior  by  refusing  to  ac¬ 
knowledge  their  capability  of  acquiring  European  culture,  so 
that,  according  to  the  European  view,  the  colored  races  are 
varieties  of  the  genus  Homo  brutus.  Rizal  then  asked  him¬ 
self,  Are  these  views  just?  He  began  asking  this  question 
when  he  was  a  school-boy  and  at  the  same  time  began  to  an¬ 
swer  it  by  observing  his  white  fellow-students  closely  while 
he  studied  his  own  mental  processes  and  emotions  in  order  to 
make  comparisons. 

He  soon  remarked  that  in  school,  at  least,  no  difference 
could  be  detected  between  the  intellectual  level  of  the  whites 
and  Filipinos.  There  were  lazy  and  industrious,  moral  and 
immoral,  dull  and  intelligent  boys  among  the  whites  as  well 
as  among  the  Filipino  scholars.  Soon  this  study  of  race 
spurred  him  to  exert  himself  to  the  utmost  in  his  school 
studies,  and  a  kind  of  race  rivalry  took  possession  of  him.  He 
was  overjoyed  whenever  he  succeeded  in  solving  a  difficult 
problem  that  baffled  his  white  companions.  But  he  did  not 
regard  these  events  as  personal  successes  so  much  as  triumphs 
of  his  own  collective  people.  Thus  it  was  in  school  that  he 
first  became  convinced  that  whites  go  through  the  same  intel¬ 
lectual  operations  as  Filipinos  and — ceteris  paribus — progress 
in  the  same  way  and  to  the  same  extent.  From  this  observa¬ 
tion  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  whites  and  Filipinos  have 
the  same  intellectual  endowment. 

In  consequence  of  this  conclusion  there  manifested  itself  in 
Rizal,  as  he  himself  avowed,  a  sort  of  national  self -exaltation. 
He  began  to  believe  that  the  Tagalogs  must  stand  higher  in¬ 
tellectually  than  the  Spaniards  (the  only  whites  he  had  known 


362 


APPENDICES 


up  to  that  time)  and  he  used  to  like  to  tell  how  he  came  to  this 
fallacious  conclusion.  In  the  first  place,  he  said,  in  his  school 
the  whites  received  instruction  in  their  own  language  while 
the  Filipinos  had  to  worry  with  strange  idioms  in  order  to 
receive  instruction  which  was  given  in  it  alone.  The  Filipinos, 
therefore,  must  be  better  endowed  intellectually  than  the 
Spaniards,  he  inferred,  since  they  not  only  kept  up  with  the 
Spaniards  in  their  studies  but  even  surpassed  them,  although 
handicapped  by  a  different  language.  Still  another  observa¬ 
tion  caused  him  to  disbelieve  in  the  superiority  of  the  Euro¬ 
pean  intelligence.  He  noticed  that  the  Spaniards  believed 
that  the  Filipinos  looked  up  to  them  as  beings  of  a  superior 
nation  and  made  of  a  finer  clay  than  themselves.  But  Rizal 
knew  very  well  that  the  respectfulness  the  Filipinos  mani¬ 
fested  toward  the  Spaniards  did  not  proceed  from  self¬ 
depreciation  but  was  simply  dictated  by  fear  and  self-interest. 

By  fear  because  they  saw  in  the  Spaniard  their  lord  and 
master  who  oppressed  them  arbitrarily  even  with  good  inten¬ 
tions  ;  by  self-interest  because  they  had  observed  that  his  pride 
of  race  lays  the  European  open  to  flattery  and  that  they  could 
get  large  concessions  from  him  by  a  little  subserviency.  The 
Filipinos  do  not  therefore  have  any  real  respect  for  the  Euro¬ 
pean  but  cringe  and  bow  to  him  from  interested  motives  alone. 
Behind  his  back  they  laugh  at  him,  ridicule  his  presumption, 
and  regard  themselves  as  in  reality  the  shrewder  of  the  two 
races.  Because  the  Spaniards  never  divined  the  real  senti¬ 
ment  of  the  Filipinos  toward  themselves,  young  Rizal  felt 
justified  in  regarding  them  as  inferior  in  intelligence  to  his 
own  countrymen.  But  in  later  years  he  found  it  necessary  to 
change  this  false  impression  of  his  youth,  especially  as  he  had 
found  by  his  own  personal  experience  how  easy  it  is  to  draw 
mistaken  conclusions  about  people  of  a  different  race  from 
one’s  own.  “Whenever,”  he  used  to  say,  “I  came  upon  con¬ 
demnation  of  my  people  by  Europeans  either  in  conversation 
or  in  books  I  recalled  these  foolish  ideas  of  my  youth,  my 


APPENDICES  363 

indignation  cooled,  and  I  could  smile  and  quote  the  French 
proverb,  ‘  Tout  comprendre,  c  ’  est  tout  pardonner.  ’  ’  ’ 

Dr.  RizaPs  sojourn  in  Spain  opened  to  him  a  new  world. 
His  intellectual  horizon  began  to  widen  with  his  new  experi¬ 
ences.  New  ideas  thronged  in  upon  him.  He  came  from  a 
land  which  was  the  very  home  of  bigotry,  where  the  Spanish 
friar,  the  Spanish  official,  and  the  Spanish  soldier  governed 
with  absolute  sway.  But  in  Madrid  he  found  the  exact  oppo¬ 
site  of  this  repression.  Free-thinkers  and  atheists  spoke 
freely  in  disparaging  terms  of  religion  and  the  church ;  the 
authority  of  the  Government  he  found  to  be  at  a  minimum, 
while  he  not  only  saw  Liberals  contending  with  the  Clerical 
Party  but  he  beheld  with  astonishment  Republicans  and 
Carlists  openly  promoting  the  development  of  their  political 
ideas. 

Still  greater  was  the  influence  upon  him  of  his  residence 
in  France,  Germany,  and  England.  In  those  countries  he  en¬ 
larged  his  scientific  information,  or  it  would  be  better,  per¬ 
haps,  to  say  that  there  the  spirit  of  modern  philology  was 
revealed  to  him  and  there  he  learned  the  meaning  of  the  word 
‘  ‘  ethnology.  ’ ’ 

The  personal  influence  of  the  late  Dr.  Rost  of  London  was 
most  marked  in  the  philological  training  of  Dr.  Rizal.  His 
teachings  and  the  study  of  the  works  of  W.  von  Humboldt, 
Jacquet,  and  Professor  H.  Kern  opened  a  new  world  for  the 
Filipino  scholar.  He  formed  a  plan  to  write  a  work  upon 
the  Tagalog  verb,  which  he  afterward  modified,  and  while  an 
exile  in  Dapitan  in  Mindanao  he  began  to  write  a  Tagalog 
grammar  in  English  and  at  the  same  time  prepared  an  essay 
upon  the  allied  elements  in  the  Tagalog  and  Visayan  lan¬ 
guages.  The  former  work  he  intended  to  dedicate  to  Pro¬ 
fessor  Kern,  in  the  name  of  the  Malay  race ;  the  latter  he 
wished  to  inscribe  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Rost.  It  was  not 
granted  to  him  to  complete  the  manuscript  of  either,  for  he 
was  interrupted  in  the  midst  of  his  work  to  be  dragged  about 


364  APPENDICES 

from  tribunal  to  tribunal  until  his  final  sentence  and  death 
by  public  execution. 

Fortunately,  his  work  upon  the  transcription  of  Tagalog 
remains  to  us,  a  translation  having  appeared  in  the  “Bij- 
dragen”  of  the  Indian  Institute.  Unfortunately,  this  work 
only  increased  the  hatred  of  his  political  opponents,  for  the 
Spaniards  were  very  much  opposed  to  any  independent  work 
on  the  part  of  the  Filipinos,  being  convinced  that  everything 
of  the  kind  was  merely  a  cloak  for  separatist  views,  and  what¬ 
ever  was  suspected  of  separatism  in  the  Philippines  was  cer¬ 
tain  of  meeting  an  unhappy  fate. 

Rizal,  brought  up  among  the  Spaniards,  was  no  better  in¬ 
structed  than  they  themselves  in  modern  ethnology,  and, 
indeed,  it  was  through  Professor  Blumentritt ’s  instrumen¬ 
tality  that  his  attention  was  first  directed  to  the  defects  in  his 
education  in  that  direction,  whereupon  he  began  with  ardor 
to  enlarge  his  knowledge  in  comparative  ethnology.  The 
works  upon  general  ethnography  by  Perschel,  F.  Muller, 
Waitz,  Gerland,  and  Ratzel,  the  ethnographical  parallels  of 
Andre,  Wilkins’s  work,  the  culture-historical  publications  of 
Lippert  and  Helwald  became  at  once  the  subject  of  his  indus¬ 
trious  and  thorough  study,  a  study,  furthermore,  that  not  only 
enlarged  his  knowledge  but  afforded  him  the  consolation  of 
the  assurance  that  his  people  were  not  an  anthropoid  race 
as  the  Spanish  asserted,  for  he  found  that  the  faults  and 
virtues  of  the  Tagal  are  entirely  human,  and,  moreover,  he 
became  convinced  that  the  virtues  and  vices  of  any  people 
are  not  mere  peculiarities  of  a  race  but  inherited  qualities, 
qualities  that  become  affected  by  climate  and  history. 

At  the  same  time  he  continued  what  he  called  his  “course 
in  practical  ethnology  ’  ’ ;  that  is  to  say,  he  studied  the  life  of 
the  French  and  German  peasants,  because  he  thought  that  a 
peasantry  preserves  national  and  race  peculiarities  longer  than 
the  other  classes  of  a  people,  and  also  because  he  believed  he 
ought  to  compare  only  the  peasantry  of  Europe  with  his  own 


APPENDICES 


365 


countrymen,  because  the  latter  were  nearly  all  peasants. 
With  this  object  in  view  he  withdrew  for  weeks  to  some  quiet 
village  where  he  observed  closely  the  daily  life  of  the  country 
people. 

He  summed  up  the  results  of  his  scientific  and  practical” 
studies  in  the  following  propositions : 

1.  The  races  of  man  differ  in  outward  appearance  and  in  the  structure 
of  the  skeleton  but  not  in  their  physical  qualities.  The  same  passions 
and  pains  affect  the  white,  yellow,  brown,  and  black  races;  the  same 
motives  influence  their  actions,  only  the  form  in  which  the  emotions  are 
expressed  and  the  way  the  actions  are  directed  are  different.  Neither 
is  this  particular  form  of  conduct  and  expression  constant  with  any  race 
or  people  but  varies  under  the  influence  of  the  most  diverse  factors. 

2.  Races  exist  only  for  the  anthropologists.  For  a  student  of  the 
customs  of  a  people  there  are  only  social  strata,  and  it  is  the  task  of  the 
ethnologist  to  separate  and  identify  these  strata.  And  just  as  we  mark 
out  the  lines  of  stratification  in  the  mountain  ranges  of  a  geological 
sketch  so  ought  we  to  mark  out  the  social  strata  of  the  human  race. 
And  just  as  there  ar©  mountains  whose  summits  do  not  reach  to  the 
highest  strata  of  the  geological  system,  so  there  are  many  people  that 
do  not  reach  the  highest  social  strata,  while  the  lowest  strata  are  common 
to  all  of  them.  Even  in  the  old  established  civilizations  of  France  and 
Germany  a  great  proportion  of  the  population  forms  a  class  which  is 
upon  the  same  intellectual  level  with  the  majority  of  the  Tagal,  and  is 
to  be  distinguished  from  them  only  by  the  color  of  the  skin,  clothing, 
and  language.  But  while  mountains  do  not  grow  higher,  peoples  do 
gradually  grow  up  into  the  higher  strata  of  civilization,  and  this  growth 
does  not  depend  upon  the  intellectual  capacity  alone  of  a  given  people, 
but  it  is  also  due  to  some  extent  to  good  fortune  and  to  other  factors, 
some  of  which  can  be  explained  and  others  not. 

3.  Since  not  only  the  statesmen  who  conduct  colonial  affairs  but 
scientific  men  as  well  maintain  that  there  are  races  of  limited  intelli¬ 
gence  that  could  never  attain  the  height  of  European  culture,  the  real 
explanation  must  be  as  follows :  The  higher  intelligence  may  be  compared 
to  wealth-r-there  are  rich  and  poor  peoples  just  as  there  are  rich  and 
poor  individuals.  The  rich  man  that  believes  he  was  born  rich  deceives 
himself.  He  came  into  the  world  as  poor  and  naked  as  his  slave,  but  he 
inherits  the  wealth  that  his  parents  earned.  In  the  same  way  intelli¬ 
gence  is  inherited.  Races  that  formerly  found  themselves  compelled  by 
certain  special  conditions  to  exercise  their  mental  powers  to  an  unusual 
extent  have  naturally  developed  their  intelligence  to  a  higher  degree  than 
others  and  they  have  bequeathed  this  intelligence  to  their  descendants, 
who  in  turn  have  increased  it  by  further  use.  Europeans  are  rich  in 
intelligence  but  the  present  inhabitants  of  Europe  could  not  affirm  with¬ 
out  presumption  that  their  ancestors  were  just  as  rich  in  intelligence  at 
the  start  as  they  themselves  are  now.  The  Europeans  have  required 
centuries  of  strife  and  effort,  of  fortunate  conjunctions,  of  the  necessary 
ability,  of  advantageous  laws,  and  of  individual  leading  men  to  enable 


366 


APPENDICES 


them  to  bequeath  their  intellectual  wealth  to  their  present  representa¬ 
tives.  The  people  that  are  so  intelligent  to-day  have  become  so  through 
a  long  process  of  transmission  and  struggles.  History  shows  that  the 
Romans  thought  no  better  of  the  Germans  than  the  Spaniards  think  of 
the  Tagalog,  and  when  Tacitus  praises  the  Germans  he  does  so  in  the 
same  style  of  philosophical  idealizing  that  we  see  in  the  followers  of 
Rousseau,  who  thought  that  their  political  ideal  was  realized  in  Tahaiti. 

4.  The  condemnatory  criticism  of  the  Filipinos  by  the  Spaniards  is 
easy  to  explain  but  appears  not  to  be  justified.  Rizal  demonstrated  this 
in  the  following  way:  Weaklings  do  not  emigrate  to  foreign  lands  but 
only  men  of  energy  that  travel  hence  already  prejudiced  against  the 
colored  races  and  reach  their  destination  with  the  conviction,  which  is 
usually  sanctioned  by  law,  that  they  are  called  to  rule  the  latter.  If  we 
remember,  what  few  white  men  know,  that  the  Filipinos  fear  the  bru¬ 
tality  of  the  whites,  it  is  easy  to  explain  why  they  make  such  a  poor 
showing  in  works  written  by  the  white  while  they  themselves  cannot  reply 
in  print.  If  we  consider  further  that  the  Filipinos  with  whom  the  whites 
had  dealings  belong,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  lower  strata  of  society, 
the  opinions  of  them  given  by  the  whites  have  about  the  same  value  as 
that  of  an  educated  Tagal  would  have  who  should  travel  to  Europe  and 
judge  all  Germans  and  French  by  the  dairy -maids,  porters,  waiters,  and 
cab-drivers  he  might  meet. 

5.  The  misfortune  of  the  Filipinos  is  in  the  color  of  their  skin  and  in 
that  alone.  In  Europe  there  are  a  great  many  persons  that  have  risen 
from  the  lowest  dregs  of  the  populace  to  the  highest  offices  and  honors. 
Such  people  may  be  divided  into  two  classes,  those  that  accommodate 
themselves  to  their  new  position  without  pretensions  and  whose  origin  is 
consequently  not  imputed  to  them  as  a  disgrace,  but  on  the  contrary 
they  are  respected  as  self-made  men;  and  the  conventional  parvenus, 
who  are  ridiculed  and  detested  universally. 

A  Filipino  would  find  himself  ordinarily  in  the  second  of  these  two 
classes  no  matter  how  noble  his  character  or  how  perfect  a  gentleman 
he  might  be  in  his  manners  and  conduct,  because  his  origin  is  indelibly 
stamped  upon  his  countenance,  visible  to  all,  a  mark  that  always  carries 
with  it  painful  humiliations  for  the  unfortunate  native  since  it  for  ever 
exposes  him  to  the  prejudices  of  the  whites.  Everything  he  does  is 
minutely  examined;  a  trifling  error  in  the  toilet,  which  would  be  over¬ 
looked  in  a  shoemaker’s  son  that  had  acquired  the  title  of  baron,  and 
might  easily  happen  to  a  pure-blooded  descendant  of  the  Montmo- 
rencys,  in  his  case  excites  amusement  and  you  hear  the  remark:  “What 
else  do  you  expect?  He  is  only  a  native.”  But  even  if  he  does  not 
infringe  any  of  the  rules  of  etiquette,  and  is  besides  an  able  lawyer  or 
a  skilful  physician,  his  accomplishments  are  not  taken  as  a  matter  of 
course,  but  he  is  regarded  with  a  kind  of  good-natured  surprise,  a  feel¬ 
ing  much  like  the  astonishment  with  which  one  regards  a  well  trained 
dog  in  a  circus,  bfit  never  as  a  man  of  the  same  capabilities  as  a  white 
man. 

Another  reason  for  the  mean  opinion  in  which  the  Filipinos  have  been 
held  by  the  whites  is  found  in  the  circumstance  that  in  the  tropics  all  the 
servants  are  colored.  They  have  the  defects  of  their  social  class  and  of 
servants  everywhere.  Now,  when  a  German  housewife  complains  of  her 
servants,  she  does  not  extend  their  bad  qualities  to  the  whole  German 


APPENDICES 


367 


nation;  but  this  is  done  unblushingly  by  Europeans  that  live  in  the 
tropics,  and  they  never  apparently  feel  any  compunctions  but  sleep  the 
sleep  of  the  just,  undisturbed  by  conscience. 

The  merchants  also  have  contributed  to  the  unfavorable  judgment  of 
the  Filipinos.  Europeans  come  to  the  tropics  in  order  to  get  rich  as  soon 
as  possible,  which  can  only  be  done  by  buying  from  the  natives  at 
astounding ly  low  rates.  The  latter,  however,  do  not  regard  this  pro¬ 
ceeding  as  a  really  commercial  one,  but  they  believe  that  the  whites  are 
trying  to  cheat  them;  and  they  govern  themselves  accordingly  by  trying, 
on  their  side,  to  overreach  the  whites  while  their  dealings  with  one 
another  are  far  more  honorable.  Consequently  the  Europeans  call  the 
natives  liars  and  cheats,  while  it  never  occurs  to  them  that  their  own 
exploiting  of  the  ignorance  of  the  natives  is  a  conscienceless  proceeding, 
or  rather  they  believe  that,  as  whites,  they  are  morally  justified  in  deal¬ 
ing  immorally  with  the  natives  because  the  latter  are  colored. 

Dr.  Rizal  finally  came  to  think  that  he  need  no  longer 
wonder  at  the  prejudice  of  the  whites  against  his  people  after 
he  saw  in  Europe  what  unjustifiable  prejudices  European 
nations  entertain  against  one  another.  He  himself  was 
always  benevolent  and  moderate  in  his  judgment  of  foreign 
peoples.  His  active  and  keen  mind,  his  personal  amiability, 
his  politeness  and  manner  as  a  man  of  the  world,  and  his  good 
and  noble  heart  gained  him  friends  everywhere,  and,  there¬ 
fore,  the  tragic  death  of  this  intellectually  distinguished  and 
amiable  man  aroused  general  concern. 

Rizal  was  an  artist  of  delicate  perceptions,  a  draftsman  and 
sculptor  as  well  as  a  scholar  and  ethnologist.  Professor 
Blumentritt  possesses  three  statues  made  bv  him  of  terra 
cotta  which  might  aptly  serve  as  symbols  of  his  life.  One 
represents  Prometheus  bound.  The  second  represents  the 
victory  of  death  over  life,  and  this  scene  is  imagined  with 
peculiar  originality:  a  skeleton  in  a  monk’s  cowl  bears  in  its 
arms  the  inanimate  body  of  a  young  maiden.  The  third  shows 
us  a  female  form  standing  upon  a  death’s  head  and  holding  a 
torch  in  her  high  uplifted  hands.  This  is  the  triumph  of 
knowledge  of  the  soul  over  death.  Rizal,  concludes  Professor 
Blumentritt,  was  undoubtedly  the  most  distinguished  man  not 
only  of  his  own  people  but  of  the  Malay  race  in  general.  His 
memory  will  never  die  in  his  fatherland. 


APPENDIX  E 

SPECIMEN  PAGES  FROM  RIZAL’S  DIARY 


(It  was  more  a  series  of  notes  to  assist  his  memory  than  a 
daily  record  of  events.  Some  of  the  entries  are  illegible.) 

Saturday,  April  28  (1888).  We  arrived  at  San  Francisco  in  the 
morning.  We  anchored.  It  is  said  that  we  shall  be  quarantined.  The 
Custom  House  boat  visited  us:  its  flag  has  this  look:  [American  Cus¬ 
toms  flag  drawn].  The  sacks  or  bags  of  silk  were  taken  away;  a  sack 
costing  $700.  They  are  not  afraid  of  the  silk;  and  they  were  to  take 
their  breakfast  on  board. 

Sunday,  April  29.  Second  day  of  the  quarantine.  We  are  greatly 
troubled  and  impatient  aboard.  I  have  not  eaten;  it  gets  my  nerve. 

Monday,  30.  The  quarantine  is  continued.  I  read  in  the  paper  a 
statement  of  the  Sanitary  Doctor  against  quarantine. 

Tuesday,  May  1.  The  quarantine  is  continued.  We  signed  a  petition 
against  the  quarantine;  and  the  Englishmen  wrote  to  their  Consul. 

Thursday,  May  3.  Six  days  of  quarantine. 

Friday,  May  4,  at  3  p.m.  the  quarantine  is  ended.  I  stayed  at  Palace 
Hotel:  $4  a  day  with  bath  and  everything.  Stockton-Str.  312.  I  saw 
the  Golden  Gate.  .  .  .  The  Custom  House.  A  letter  of  recommendation. 
On  Sunday  stores  were  closed.  The  best  St.  in  San  Francisco  is  Market 
St.  I  took  a  walk. — Stanford,  the  rich  man. — A  street  near  the  China 
Town.  We  left  San  Francisco  on  Sunday,  the  6th,  at  4.30  p.m. — 
Sailed  till  Oakland — Railroad — On  board  from  Port  Costa  to  Benicia — 
Plantations — Herds  of  cattle — No  herdsmen — Stores  at  the  camp — Din¬ 
ner  at  Sacramento,  75  cents.  We  slept  in  the  coach.  Regular  night.  We 
woke  up  an  hour  from  Reno,  where  we  took  our  breakfast  at  7.30  of 
Monday,  May  7.  ...  I  saw  an  Indian  [Indio]  attired  in  semi-European 
suit,  and  semi-Indian  suit,  leaning  against  a  wall.  Wide  deserts  without 
plants  nor  trees.  Unpopulated.  Lonely  place.  Bare  mountains.  Sands. 
A  big  extension  of  white  land,  like  chalk.  Far  from  this  desert  can  be 
seen  some  blue  mountains.  It  was  a  fine  day.  It  was  warm,  and  there 
was  still  snow  on  the  top  of  some  mountains. 

Tuesday,  May  8 :  This  is  a  beautiful  morning.  We  stop  from  place  to 
place.  We  are  near  Ogden.  I  believe  with  a  good  system  of  irrigation 
this  place  could  be  cultivated.  We  are  at  Utah  state,  the  3rd.  state  we 
crossed  over.  In  approaching  Ogden  the  fields  are  seen  with  horses, 
oxen,  and  trees.  Some  small  houses  are  seen  from  a  distance.  From 
Ogden  to  Denver.  The  clock  is  set  one  hour  ahead  of  time.  We  are 
now  beginning  to  see  flowers  with  yellow  color  on  the  way.  The  moun- 

368 


APPENDICES 


369 


tains  at  a  distance  are  covered  with  snow.  The  banks  of  Salt  Lake  are 
more  beautiful  than  other  things  we  saw.  The  mules  are  very  big. 
There  are  mountains  in  the  middle  of  the  lake  like  the  islands  of  Talim 
in  Laguna  de  Bay.  We  saw  three  Mormon  boys  at  Farmington.  There 
were  sheep,  cows  and  horses  in  the  meadows.  This  region  not  thickly 
populated.  A  flock  of  ducks  in  the  lake.  There  were  beautiful  houses 
with  trees,  straight  streets,  flowers,  low  houses.  Children  greeted  us  at 
Salt  Lake  City.  In  Utah  the  women  serve  at  the  table.  It  is  known 
that  dinner  will  be  cheap  (?).  We  changed  train  at  Ogden,  and  we  will 
not  have  any  change  until  Denver.  In  Provo  I  ate  much  for  75  cents. 
We  are  passing  between  two  mountains  through  a  narrow  channel. 

Wed.  May  9.  We  are  passing  through  the  mountains  of  rocks  along 
a  river;  the  river  is  noisy  and  its  noise  gives  life  to  the  lifeless  scenery. 
We  woke  up  at  Colorado  the  4th  state  we  crossed  over.  At  10/30  we 
climb  up  a  certain  height,  and  this  is  why  snow  is  seen  along  the  way. 
There  were  many  pines.  The  snow  on  the  mountain  top  is  white  and 
shiny.  We  passed  through  tunnels  made  of  wood,  to  protect  the  road 
against  snow.  Icicles  in  these  tunnels  are  very  bright  which  gives 
majestic  effect. — The  Porter  of  the  Pullman  Car,  an  American,  is  a  sort 
of  thief. — Colorado  has  more  trees  than  the  three  states  we  passed  over. 
There  are  many  horses. 

Thursday,  May  10.  We  woke  up  at  Nebraska.  The  country  is  a 
plain.  We  reached  Omaha,  a  big  city  at  4  p.m.,  the  biggest  since  we 
left  San  Francisco.  The  Missouri  river  is  twice  as  wide  as  the  Pasig 
river  in  its  wide  part.  It  is  marshy.  Islands  are  formed  in  the  middle 
of  the  river;  its  banks  are  not  beautiful.  This  region  has  many  horses 
and  cattle.  The  train  passed  over  the  Missouri  bridge  for  2  and  1/2 
minutes ;  the  train  goes  slowly.  We  are  now  in  Illinois. 

Friday,  May  11.  We  wake  up  near  Chicago.  The  country  is  culti¬ 
vated.  It  shows  our  nearness  to  Chicago.  We  left  Chicago  at  8:1/4 
Friday  night.  What  I  observed  in  Chicago  is  that  every  cigar  store  has 
an  Indian  figure,  and  always  different.  (27-75  Washington  Street. 
Boston  Miss  C.  G.  Smith.) 

Saturday,  May  12.  A  good  Wagner  Car — we  are  proceeding  in  a  fine 
day.  The  country  is  beautiful  and  well  populated.  We  shall  arrive  at 
the  English  territory  in  the  afternoon,  and  we  shall  soon  see  Niagara 
Falls.  We  stop  for  some  time  to  see  the  points  that  are  beautiful; 
we  went  at  the  side  below  the  Falls;  I  was  between  two  rocks  and  this 
is  the  greatest  cascade  I  ever  saw.  It  is  not  so  beautiful  nor  so  fine 
as  the  falls  at  Los  Banos;  but  much  bigger,  more  imposing  and  could 
not  be  compared  with  it.  The  cascade  has  various  falls,  various  parts. 
We  left  the  place  at  night.  There  is  a  mysterious  sound  and  persistent 
echo. 

Sunday,  May  13.  We  wake  up  near  Albany.  This  is  a  big  city.  The 
Hudson  river  which  runs  along  carries  many  boats.  We  crossed  over  a 
bridge.  The  landscape  is  beautiful;  and  it  is  not  inferior  to  the  best  in 
Europe.  We  are  going  along  the  banks  of  the  Hudson.  They  are  very 
beautiful,  although  a  little  more  solitary  than  those  of  the  Pasig. 
There  were  ships,  boats,  trees,  hills;  and  the  major  part  is  cultivated. 
The  Hudson  is  wide.  Beautiful  ships.  Sliced  granite  rocks  were  paved 
along  the  railroads.  Some  points  widely  extended.  There  were  beau¬ 
tiful  houses  between  trees.  Day  fine.  Our  grand  transcontinental  trip 


370 


APPENDICES 


ended  on  Sunday,  May  13.  at  11:10  a.m.  We  passed  through  various 
arches  in  tunnels: — The  Art  Age,  75  W.  23  Street. 

We  left  New  York  on  May  16,  1888.  There  were  many  people  at  the 
dock.  The  first  and  second  class  entrances  are  separated.  At  9  o'clock 
sharp  the  bell  rang  to  warn  the  visitors  away.  At  9  1/30,  the  pier  was 
full  of  people.  White  handkerchiefs  were  waved;  ribbons  and  flowers 
of  different  colors  are  seen  here  and  there. 

May  24 — Arrived  in  Liverpool. 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


1.  “El  Embarque:  Himno  k  la  Flota  de  Magellanes.  ’ 1  (The  De¬ 
parture:  Hymn  to  Magellan’s  Fleet.) 

This  poem  seems  to  have  been  dated  December  5,  1875,  but  accord¬ 
ing  to  Rizal ’s  friends.  Vicente  Elio  and  Mariano  Ponce,  it  was  written 
in  1874.  It  was  first  published  in  “La  Patria,”  Manila,  December  30, 
1899. 

2.  “Y  Es  Espanol:  Elcano,  el  Primero  en  Dar  la  Vuelta  al  Mundo.” 
(And  He  Is  Spanish:  Elcano,  the  First  to  Go  Around  the  World.) 

A  poem  in  couplets.  Dated  December  5,  1875. 

3.  “El  Combate:  Urbistondo,  Terror  de  Jolo.  ”  (The  Battle: 
Urbistondo,  the  Terror  of  Jolo.) 

A  romance,  dated  December  5,  1875. 

4.  “Un  Dialogo  Alusivo  a  la  Despedida  de  los  Colegiales.  ”  (A  Dia¬ 
logue  Embodying  His  Farewell  to  the  Collegians.) 

Rizal  mentions  this  poem  as  having  been  delivered  toward  the  end 
of  his  course  at  the  Ateneo,  which  would  mean  March,  1876. 

5.  “Al  Nino  Jesus.”  (To  the  Child  Jesus.) 

A  poem  dated  Manila,  November  14,  but  the  year  is  not  given.  Sup¬ 
posed  to  have  been  written  in  1876. 

6.  “Un  R'ecuerdo  a  Mi  Pueblo.”  (A  Remembrance  to  My  Town.) 

Poem  offered  by  the  author  at  one  of  the  sessions  of  the  Academy  of 

Literature  of  the  Ateneo.  First  published  in  “La  Patria,”  December 
30,  1899.  Written  about  1876. 

7.  “Alianza  Intima  entre  la  Religion  y  la  Buena  Educaci6n. ”  (Inti¬ 
mate  Bond  between  Religion  and  Good  Education.) 

Dated  April  1,  1876. 

8.  “Por  la  Educacion  Recibe  Lustre  la  Patria.”  (Through  Educa¬ 
tion  the  Country  Receives  Light.) 

Poem  written  about  April  1,  1876.  First  published  in  “El  Renaci- 
miento,”  January  2,  1906. 

9.  “El  Cautiverio  y  el  Triunfo:  Batalla  de  Lucena  y  Prision  de 
Boabdil. ”  (The  Captivity  and  the  Triumph:  Battle  of  Lucena  and  the 
Imprisonment  of  Boabdil.) 

Poem  dated  Manila,  December  3,  1876. 

10.  “La  Conquista  de  Granada:  Abre  la  Ciudad  sus  Puertas  k  los 
Vencedores. ”  (The  Conquest  of  Granada:  Let  the  City  Open  Its  Gates 
to  the  Conquerors.) 

Legend  in  verse;  dated  December  3,  1876. 

11.  “En  Ano  de  1876  k  1877.” 

Written  by  Rizal  between  1876  and  1877.  A  sketch  of  the  history 
of  Spanish  literature. 

12.  “Cuaderno  de  Varias  Preguntas  Escritas  por  J.  R.  Mercado.” 
(Copy-book  of  various  questions  written  by  J.  R.  Mercado.) 

371 


372 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Notes  on  history. 

13.  “Col6n  y  Juan  II.  ”  (Columbus  and  John  II.) 

Lyric  poem  composed  at  the  Ateneo. 

14.  “El  Heroismo  de  Colon. ”  (The  Heroism  of  Columbus.) 

Epic  canto,  dated  December  8,  1877. 

15.  “Leyenda,  Gran  Consuelo  en  la  Mayor  Desdicha.  ”  (Reading, 
the  Great  Consolation  in  the  Worst  Misfortune.) 

Poem  written  at  the  Ateneo,  probably  1877. 

16.  “A  la  Juventud  Eilipina. ”  (To  the  Philippine  Youth.) 

The  ode  that  contains  the  oblation,  “My  Fatherland. ’ ’  First  pub¬ 
lished  in  the  “Revista  del  Liceo  de  Manila,  1879. ” 

16  b.  “A  la  Juventud  Filipina.”  (To  the  Philippine  Youth.) 

Translation  of  the  foregoing  into  Tagalog  verse  by  Honorio  Lopez, 
in  the  booklet  “Ang  Buhay  ni  Dr.  Jose  Rizal,  ”  of  which  Lopez  was  the 
author. 

17.  “Abd-el-Azis  y  Mahoma.  ”  (Abd-el-Azis  and  Mohammed.) 

Historical  romance,  read  at  the  Ateneo  by  Manuel  Fernandez  y 

Maniung,  December  8,  1879,  at  the  meeting  in  honor  of  the  Ateneo ’s 
patron  saint. 

18.  “A  Filipinas. ”  (To  the  Philippines.) 

A  sonnet  dated  February,  1880,  and  written  in  the  album  of  the 
Society  of  Sculptors,  now  extinct.  First  published  in  the  1 1  Inde¬ 
pendence, December  29,  1898. 

19.  “El  Consejo  de  los  Dioses.  ”  (The  Council  of  the  Gods.) 

An  allegory  written  in  praise  of  Cervantes  and  for  the  celebration  of 
his  anniversary.  First  published  in  the  “Revista  del  Liceo,”  1880. 

19.  b.  “El  Consejo  de  los  Dioses. ” 

The  foregoing  translated  into  Tagalog  by  Pascual  H.  Poblete,  1905. 

20.  “Junto  al  Pasig.”  (Beside  the  Pasig.) 

Melodrama  in  verse.  First  published  in  “La  Patria,”  December 
30,  1902. 

20  b.  “Junto  al  Pasig.” 

Part  of  the  first  scene  of  the  foregoing  as  sung  by  students  in  a 
religious  procession,  November  27,  1904.  The  music  was  composed  by 
Bias  de  Echegoyen. 

20  c.  “Sa  Virgen  ng  Antipolo.” 

Translation  into  Tagalog  verse  of  the  children’s  chorus  in  Junta  al 
Pasig,  ’  ’  by  Honorio  Lopez. 

21.  “Al  M.  R.  P.  Pablo  Ramon,  Rector  del  Ateneo,  en  sus  Dias.” 
(To  his  Reverence  Pablo  Ramon,  Rector  of  the  Ateneo.) 

An  ode  dated  January  25,  1881. 

22.  “A  la  Virgen  Maria.”  (To  the  Virgin  Mary.) 

A  sonnet  first  published  by  “La  Alborada, ”  Manila,  December  30, 
1901. 

23.  “Memorias  Intimas.  ”  (Intimate  Memories.) 

Impressions  since  leaving  Calamba,  May  1,  1882,  and  until  May  3, 
1883 

24.  “El  Amor  Patrio. ”  (Love  for  the  Fatherland.) 

Article  published  under  the  pseudonym  “Laong  Laan”  in  the 
“Diariong  Tagalog,”  Manila,  August  20,  1882 — the  first  article  he 
wrote  in  Europe. 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


373 


24  a.  “Ang  Pag  Ibig  sa  Tinubuang  Lupa.  ” 

Tagalog  translation  of  the  foregoing  and  printed  at  the  same  time. 

25.  “Los  Viajes. ”  (The  Voyages.) 

Article  in  “Diariong  Tagalog,”  1882. 

25  b.  “  Ang  Pangingibang  Lupa.  ’  * 

Tagalog  translation  of  the  foregoing  and  printed  at  the  same  time. 

26.  “Me  Piden  Versos!”  (You  Ask  Me  for  Verses.) 

Poem,  for  which  see  Appendix.  Dated  Madrid,  Oct  7,  1882.  First 
printed  in  “La  Solidaridad.  ” 

26  b.  “  Pinatutula  Ako !  ’  ’ 

Tagalog  translation  of  foregoing. 

27.  “Las  Dudas. ”  (Doubts.) 

Article  published  under  the  pseudonym  “Laong  Laan”  in  Madrid, 
November  7,  1882. 

28.  “R'evista  de  Madrid.”  (Review  of  Madrid.) 

An  article  dated  Madrid,  November  29,  1882,  written  under  the  name 
“Laong  Laan”  for  the  “Diariong  Tagalog”  and  returned  because  that 
journal  had  ceased  to  exist. 

29.  “P.  Jacinto:  Memorias  de  un  Estudiante  de  Manila.”  (P.  Ja¬ 
cinto:  Memories  of  a  Student  of  Manila.) 

Refers  to  himself.  Written  after  his  arrival  in  Madrid,  1882. 

30.  “La  Instruccion.  (Instruction.) 

Probably  written  after  his  arrival  in  Madrid  in  1882. 

31.  “Apuntes  de  Obstetricia.  ”  (Notes  on  Obstetrics.) 

Found  in  a  copy-book. 

32.  “Apuntes  clinicos. ”  (Clinical  Notes.) 

Madrid,  not  dated. 

33.  “Lecciones  de  Clinica  Medica.  ”  (Lessons  in  Medical  Clinical 
Procedure.) 

Madrid,  October  4,  1883,  to  May  29,  1884. 

34.  “Filipinas  Desgraciada. ”  (The  Unfortunate  Philippines.) 

Article  describing  the  calamities  of  1880-82.  Written  in  Madrid. 

35.  “Discurso-Brindis.  ”  (Reply  to  a  Toast.) 

Speech  at  the  Cafe  de  Madrid  night  of  December  31,  1883. 

36.  A  historical  novel,  unfinished. 

Five  chapters.  He  began  to  write  it  in  Madrid  while  a  student  there. 
It  has  no  title. 

37.  “A  la  Senorita  C.  O.  y  R. ”  (To  Miss  Consuelo  Ortiga  y  Rey.) 
Poem  written  in  Madrid,  August  22,  1883,  first  published  in  “El 

Renacimiento,  ”  December  29,  1904. 

38.  “  Sobre  el  Teatro  Tagalo.”  (On  the  Tagalog  Theater.) 

Written  May  6,  1884,  refuting  an  attack  made  by  Manuel  Lorenzo 

d’  Ayot.  Published  in  Madrid. 

39.  “Discurso-Brindis.”  (Reply  to  a  Toast.) 

Speech  made  in  Madrid,  June  25,  1884,  which  received  great  news¬ 
paper  notoriety. 

40.  “Costumbres  Filipinas:  un  Recuerdo.”  (Philippine  Customs:  a 
Memory.) 

An  incomplete  article,  written  in  Madrid,  1884  or  1885. 

41.  “La  Fete  de  Saint  Isidro.” 

Not  dated.  Written  in  French. 


374 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


42.  “Notes  on  Field  Fortifications. ’  ’ 

Written  in  English  about  1885.  Found  in  a  clinic  note-book. 

43.  “Llanto  y  Risas.  ” 

An  uncompleted  article,  written  in  Madrid  between  1884  and  1886. 

44.  Memorias  de  un  Gallo.  (Memories  of  a  cock.) 

Incomplete.  Mutilated. 

45.  “Apuntes  de  Literatura  Espanola,  de  Hebreo,  y  de  Arabe. ” 
(Notes  on  Spanish,  Hebrew,  and  Arabian  Literature.) 

Not  dated.  Notes  in  a  copy-book. 

46.  “Semblanzas  de  Algunos  Filipinos  Companeros  en  Europa.  ” 
Closely  Noted  Observations  on  Certain  Filipinos  Then  Residing  in 

Europe. 

47.  “Estado  de  Religiosidad  de  los  Pueblos  en  Filipinas. ”  (Religious 
State  of  the  Towns  in  the  Philippines.) 

Unpublished. 

48.  “Pensamiento  de  un  Filipino.”  (Thoughts  of  a  Filipino.) 

An  unpublished  article,  date  unknown. 

49.  “Un  Librepensador. ’ ’  (A  Free-Thinker.) 

An  unpublished  article.  Probably  written  in  Madrid. 

50.  “Los  Animales  de  Juan.”  (John’s  Animals.) 

An  unpublished  story. 

51.  “A  S.  .  .  .”  (To  S - ) 

Poem  dated  November  6,  - . 

52.  “A.  .  .  .”  (To  - ) 

Poem,  not  dated;  rough  draft. 

53.  “Mi  Primer  Recuerdo:  Fragmento  de  Mis  Memorias.”  (My 
First  Recollection:  Fragments  of  My  Memories.) 

All  these  last  few  works  seem  to  have  been  written  while  Rizal  was 
a  student  in  Madrid. 

54.  “Juan  Luna.” 

Article,  published  in  the  “Revista  Hispano-Americana,”  of  Barcelona, 
February  28,  1886,  carrying  a  front-page  portrait  of  the  great  Filipino 
painter. 

55.  A  las  Flores  de  Heidelberg.  (To  the  Flowers  of  Heidelberg.) 
Poem  dated  Heidelberg,  April  22,  1886.  Signed  “Laong  Laan,” 

first  published  in  “La  Solidaridad.  ” 

56.  “Madrid.” 

An  epistolary  chronicle,  written  in  French  from  Germany  in  1886. 
First  published  in  “Nuestro  Tiempo”  in  February,  1905. 

57.  “Crltica  Literaria.  ” 

Not  dated.  Criticisms  in  French  on  “Tartarin  sur  les  Alpes”  and 
“Le  Pistolet  de  la  Petit  Baronne.  ”  Germany,  1886. 

58.  “Essai  sur  Pierre  Corneille.” 

In  French.  Germany,  1886. 

59.  “Tinipong  Karunungan  ng  Kaibigan  Ng  mga  Taga  Rhin.” 
Beginning  of  a  translation  of  a  book  by  Hebei  into  Tagalog. 

60.  “Une  Soiree  chez  M.  B.  .  .  .” 

Written  in  Berlin,  in  French.  Unpublished  sketch.  No  date. 

61.  “Noli  Me  Tangere. ”  Berlin,  March,  1887. 

His  first  complete  novel. 

61  b.  “Noli  Me  Tangere.” 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


375 


Second  edition,  Manila,  Chofre  &  Co.,  1899. 

61  c.  “Noli  Me  Tangere. ” 

Third  edition,  Valencia,  Sempere,  1902.  Somewhat  shortened  and 
with  mutilations. 

61  d.  “Noli  Me  Tangere.” 

Fourth  edition,  Barcelona,  Maucci,  1903.  With  a  short  prologue  by 
Ramon  Sempau. 

61  e.  “  Au  Pays  des  Moines.  ’  ’ 

French  translation  of  61  by  Henri  Lucas  and  Ramon  Sempau.  Paris, 

1899.  With  a  few  notes. 

61  f.  “An  Eagle’s  Flight.” 

Abbreviated  English  translation.  New  York:  McClure,  Phillips  &  Co., 

1900. 

61  g.  “Friars  and  Filipinos.” 

Another  English  translation,  somewhat  fuller  than  61  f,  by  F.  E. 
Gannet.  New  York,  1907. 

61  h.  German  translation  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere.” 

Never  finished,  by  Dr.  Blumentritt. 

61  i.  “Noli  Me  Tangere.” 

Tagalog  translation  by  Paciano  Rizal,  brother  of  the  author.  Rizal 
himself  revised  and  corrected  the  sheets. 

61  j.  “Noli  Me  Tangere.” 

Tagalog  translation  by  P.  H.  Poblete. 

61  k.  “  Noli  Me  Tangere.  ’  ’ 

Cebuana  translation  by  Vicente  Sotto. 

61  1.  “  Tulang  na  sa  ‘  Noli.  ’  ’  3 

The  song  from  Chap.  XXIII  translated  into  Tagalog  by  M.  H.  del 
Pilar.  1888. 

61  m.  “Noli  Me  Tangere”  (Extracts). 

Translations  of  chapters,  paragraphs,  and  sentences  into  many  dia¬ 
lects  in  broadside  form  for  general  distribution  in  the  islands. 

61  n.  “Ang  ‘Noli  Me  Tangere.’  ” 

Playlet  performed  on  Rizal ’s  birthday.  Mentioned  in  “El  Renaci- 
miento,”  Manila,  1905. 

61  o.  “  The  Social  Cancer.  ’  ’ 

A  complete  English  Version  of  “Noli  Me  Tangere,”  from  the  Span¬ 
ish  of  Jose  Rizal  by  Charles  Derbyshire  (with  a  life  of  Rizal),  Manila, 
Philippine  Education  Company,  1912. 

62.  “Histoire  d’  une  Mere.” 

A  Tale  of  Andersen’s.  Translation  from  German  to  French.  Berlin, 
March  5,  1887. 

63.  “Tagalische  Verskunst.  ” 

Work  read  before  the  Ethnographical  Society  of  Berlin,  April,  1887, 
and  published  the  same  year,  by  that  society. 

63  b.  “Arte  Metrica  del  Tagalog.”  (Metrical  Art  of  the  Tagalogs.) 
Spanish  translation,  made  by  Rizal,  of  the  foregoing  work.  Amplified. 

64.  “Autocrltica  de  ‘Noli  Me  Tangere.’  ”  (Self-Criticism  of  “Noli 
Me  Tangere.”) 

An  unpublished  article  in  French. 

65.  “An  Account  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Mr.  James  Thompson.” 
By  Patrick  Murdoch. 

A  study  in  English  literature.  1887.  Unpublished. 


376 


A  EIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


66.  ‘ 1  Deduceiones.  El,  segun  El,  Por  un  Pigmeo.  ”  (Deductions, 
by  himself,  a  pigmy.) 

Published  in  ‘ 1  Espana  en  Filipinas,  ’  ’  Madrid,  April,  1887. 

67.  “Dudas.  ”  (Doubts.) 

Madrid,  May  28,  1887.  Published  in  “  Espana  en  Filipinas.  ” 

68.  “En  las  Montanas/’  (In  the  Mountains.) 

Poem  written  in  Germany  in  1887. 

69.  “El  Historiador  de  Filipinas  Fernando  Blumentritt.”  (The 
Historian  of  the  Philippines,  Fernando  Blumentritt.) 

July  7,  1887.  “Espana  en  Filipinas.” 

70.  “De  Heidelberg  4  Leipzig,  Pasando  por  el  Rhin. ”  (From 
Heidelberg  to  Leipzig,  along  the  Rhine.) 

Notes  of  travel. 

71.  “De  Marsella  4  Manila.”  (From  Marseilles  to  Manila.) 

Notes  of  travel. 

72.  “Traduccion  de  Poesias  Alemanes  al  Tagalo.  ”  (Translation  of 
German  Poems  into  Tagalog.) 

Done  in  Calamba  about  1887  or  1888.  Unpublished. 

73.  “Guillermo  Tell:  Trahediang  Tinula  ni  Schiller  sa  Wikang 
Aleman.”  (William  Tell.) 

Tagalog  translation  in  which  he  used  the  new  method  of  spelling. 

74.  “Informe  al  Administrador  de  Hacienda  publica  de  la  Laguna 
acerca  de  la  Hacienda  de  los  PP.  Dominicos  en  Calamba.”  (Report  to 
the  Administrator  of  Public  Finance  of  La  Laguna  about  the  Estate  of 
the  Dominican  Friars  in  Calamba.) 

Rizal’s  report  in  the  tax  fight.  It  was  signed  by  the  justice  of  the 
peace,  the  board  of  officers,  and  seventy  leading  men  of  the  Calamba 
district.  Mr.  Ponce  describes  it  as  the  first  stone  thrown  in  the  bitter 
contest  that  ensued  between  the  village  and  the  powerful  religious 
corporation.  It  was  published  as  an  appendix  to  “La  Soberania 
Monacal,”  by  M.  H.  del  Pilar.  The  date  was  early  in  1888. 

75.  “Diario  de  Yiaje  a  Traves  de  Norte-America.  ”  (Diary  of 
Trip  across  North  America.) 

April-May  of  1888.  See  Appendix. 

76.  “Notas,  en  Colaboracion  con  el  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  y  el  Dr.  F.  Blum¬ 
entritt,  a  un  Codice  Chino  de  la  Edad  Media,  Traducido  al  Aleman  por 
el  Dr.  Hirth.  ”  (Notes,  Collaborated  with  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  and  Dr. 
F.  Blumentritt,  on  an  old  Chinese  Manuscript  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
Translated  into  German  by  Dr.  Hirth.) 

Published  in  “La  Solidaridad, ”  April  30,  1889. 

77.  “Specimens  of  Tagal  Folk-Lore.” 

London,  May,  1889.  “Triibner’s  Record.”  Composed  of  three  parts: 
proverbial  sayings,  puzzles,  verses. 

78.  “La  Yerdad  para  Todos. ”  (The  Truth  for  All.) 

Article.  Barcelona,  May  31,  1889.  Published  in  “La  Solidaridad.” 

79.  “Barrantes  y  el  Teatro  Tagalo.”  (Barrantes  and  the  Tagalog 
Theater.) 

Article,  published  in  “La  Solaridad,”  Barcelona,  June,  1889. 

80. “ Two  Eastern  Fables.” 

In  “Triibner’s  Record,”  London,  June,  1889.  English. 

81.  “La  Vision  de  Fr.  Rodriguez.”  (The  Vision  of  Friar  Rodriguez.) 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


377 


Barcelona,  1889.  Under  the  pseudonym  “  Dimas  Alang,77  a  booklet 
published  surreptitiously. 

81  b.  1 1  The  Vision  of  Friar  Rodriguez. 7  7 

English  version  made  by  F.  M.  de  Rivas  and  published  in  the  book 
“The  Story  of  the  Philippine  Islands7’  by  Murat  Halstead,  Chicago, 
1898. 

82.  A  novel  in  Spanish. 

No  title.  Rizal  began  it  in  1889,  left  unfinished. 

83.  “Por  Telefono. 77  (By  Telephone.) 

Under  the  pseudonym  “Dimas  Alang, 77  a  handbill  published 
surreptitiously. 

84.  “Verdades  Nuevas. 77  (New  Truths.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  Barcelona,  July  31,  1889. 

85.  “Una  Prof  anacion. 7  7  (A  profanation.) 

Anonymous  article.  “La  Solaridad, 77  July  31,  1889.  In  this  he  told 
of  the  disinterring  by  the  friars  of  the  body  of  Herbosa. 

86.  “  Dif erencias. 7  7  (Differences.) 

An  article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  Barcelona,  September  15,  1889. 

87.  “Filipinas  dentro  de  Cien  Anos. 77  (The  Philippines  a  Century 
Hence.) 

Four  articles  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  1889  and  1890. 

88.  A  Nuestra  Querida  Madre  Patria! !  !  Espana!!!77  (To  Our  Be¬ 
loved  Mother-Country! !  !  Spain! ! ! ) 

Proclamation  in  sheet  form,  three  columns.  Paris,  1889.  Ironical. 

89.  “A  La  Patria.77  (To  the  Home-Land.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  Madrid,  November  15,  1889. 

90.  “  Inconsecuencias. 7  7  (Inconsequences.) 

Article  against  ‘  ‘  El  Pueblo  Soberano 7  7  of  Barcelona.  Madrid, 
November  30,  1889. 

91.  “En  la  Ausencia. 77  (Absence.) 

A  poem  written  in  Paris,  1889. 

92.  “Sa  Mga  Kababay-ang  Dalaga  sa  Malolos. 77 
A  letter  headed  “Europe,  1889. 7 7 

93.  “Notas  a  la  Obra,  Sucesos  de  las  Islas  Filipinas,  por  el  Dr.  Antonio 
de  Morga. 77  (Notes  to  Happenings  in  the  Philippines  by  Dr.  Antonio 
de  Morga.) 

Prologue  by  Professor  Blumentritt.  December,  1889. 

94.  “Ingratitudes.77  (Ingratitudes.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  January  15,  1890. 

95.  “A1  Excmo.  Sr.  D.  Vicente  Barrantes. 77  (To  his  Excellency  Sr. 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  Madrid,  February  15,  1890. 

96.  “Sin  Nombre.77  (Without  Name.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  Madrid,  February  28,  1890. 

97.  “Filipinos  en  el  Congreso. 77  (Filipinos  in  the  Assembly.) 

“La  Solidaridad, 7 7  March  31,  1890. 

98.  “Seamos  Justos. 77  (Let  Us  Be  Just.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 7 7  Madrid,  April  15,  1890. 

99.  “Sobre  la  Nueva  Ortografia  de  la  Lengua  Tagalog. 77  (On  the 
new  spelling  of  the  Tagalog  language.) 

“La  Solidaridad, 7 7  April  15,  1890. 


378 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


99  b.  4 ‘Die  Transcription  des  Tagalog  von  Dr.  Jose  Rizal.  ” 
Translated  into  German  by  F.  Blumentritt  with  comments. 

100.  “Cosas  de  Filipinas. ”  (Things  Philippine.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad, 1  1  Madrid,  April  30,  1890. 

100  b.  “M&s  sobre  el  Asunto  de  Negros.  ”  (More  Concerning  the  Af¬ 
fair  in  Negros.) 

Second  part  of  the  above  article  appearing  May  15,  1890. 

101.  “Una  Esperanza. ”  (A  Hope.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad,”  Madrid,  July  15,  1890. 

102.  “Sobre  la  Indolencia  de  los  Filipinos.”  (Filipino  Indolence.) 
“La  Solidaridad,”  Madrid,  July-September  15,  1890. 

103.  “Venganzas  Cobardes. ”  (Cowardly  Vengeance.) 

Anonymous  article.  “La  Solidaridad,”  August  31,  1890. 

104.  “A  la  memoria  de  Jose  Maria  Panganiban. ”  (To  the  Memory 
of  Josd  Maria  Panganiban.) 

A  meditation  in  “La  Solidaridad,”  Madrid,  September  30,  1890. 

105.  “Una  Contestacion  a  Isabelo  de  los  Reyes.”  (An  Answer  to 
Isabelo  de  los  Reyes.) 

Article  in  “La  Solidaridad,”  Madrid,  October,  1890. 

106.  “Las  Luchas  de  Nuestros  Dias.”  (The  strifes  of  Our  Day.) 
Two  criticisms  of  the  work  “Pi  y  Margall”  appearing  in  “La 

Solidaridad,”  Madrid,  November  30,  1890. 

107.  “Como  Se  Gobiernan  las  Filipinas.”  (How  the  Philippines  Are 
Governed.) 

“La  Solidaridad,”  December  15,  1890. 

108.  “A  Mi  Musa.”  (To  My  Muse.) 

Poem  under  the  pseudonym  “Laong  Laan, ”  published  in  “La 
Solidaridad,”  Madrid,  December  31,  1890. 

109.  “Mariang  Makiling.” 

Legend.  Under  the  pseudonym  “Laong  Laan,”  published  in  “La 
Solidaridad,”  December  31,  1890. 

109  b.  “Mariang  Makiling.” 

Tagalog  translation  of  the  foregoing.  This  was  the  last  work  that 
Rizal  did  for  ‘  ‘  La  Solidaridad.  ’  ’ 

110.  “Discurso  en  el  Banquete  de  la  Colonia  Filipina  de  Madrid  en 
la  Noche  del  31  de  Diciembre  de  1890.”  (Speech  at  the  Banquet  of 
the  Philippine  Colony  of  Madrid,  held  in  that  city  on  the  Evening  of 
December  31,  1890.) 

111.  “El  Filibusterismo:  Novela  Filipina.”  (Filibusterism.) 

Ghent,  1891.  First  edition,  rare.  Fragments  were  published  by 

papers  in  Spain  in  1891. 

Ill  b.  “El  Filibusterismo.” 

Second  edition.  Manila,  Chofre  &  Co.,  1900. 

Ill  c.  “El  Filibusterismo.” 

Tagalog  translation  by  P.  H.  Poblete,  1904. 

Ill  d.  “El  Filibusterismo:  Novela  Filipina.” 

Third  edition.  Prologada  y  anotada  por  W.  E.  Retana.  Barcelona, 
de  Henrich  and  Company.  1908. 

Ill  e.  “The  Reign  of  Greed.” 

A  complete  English  version  of  “El  Filibusterismo,”  from  the  Span¬ 
ish  of  Jose  Rizal  by  Charles  Derbyshire.  Manila,  Philippine  Education 
Company,  1912. 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY  379 

112.  “Diario  de  Viaje  de  Marsella  a  Hong-Kong.  ’ 1  (Diary  of  a 
Voyage  from  Marseilles  to  Hong-Kong.) 

Unpublished.  Written  in  1891. 

113.  “Ang  Mga  Karapatan  Nang  Tao.  ” 

Tagalog  translation  of  the  Rights  of  Man  proclaimed  by  the  French 
revolutionists  of  1789.  This  was  probably  done  during  his  stay  in 
Hong-Kong  and  is  what  the  Filipinos  call  a  ‘  *  proclamation.  ’ 1 

114.  “A  la  Nacion  Espanola.  “  (To  the  Spanish  Nation.) 

Hong-Kong,  1891.  An  undated  proclamation,  written  in  Hong-Kong 

about  November,  1891.  Refers  to  the  land  question  in  Calamba. 

115.  “Sa  Mga  Kababayan.  ” 

Sheet  printed  in  Hong-Kong  in  December,  1891.  It  deals  with  the 
land  question  of  Calamba. 

116.  “La  Exportacion  del  Azucar  Filipino. ’*  (Exportation  of 
Philippine  Sugar.) 

An  article  printed  in  Hong-Kong  about  1892. 

117.  “Estatutos  y  Reglamentos  de  la  Liga  Filipina. 71  (Statutes  and 
Rules  of  the  Philippine  League.) 

Written  in  Hong-Kong,  1892. 

118.  “Una  Visita  a  la  Victoria  Gaol.”  (A  Visit  to  Victoria  Jail.) 

Written  in  Hong-Kong  in  March,  1892,  describing  his  visit  to  the 

city  jail. 

119.  “Colonisation  du  British  North  Borneo,  par  des  Families  des 
lies  Philippines.  1  ’  (Colonization  of  British  North  Borneo  by  families 
from  the  Philippine  Islands.) 

He  also  did  this  work  in  Spanish. 

119  b.  “Proyecto  de  Colonizacion  del  British  North  Borneo  por 
Filipinos. 1 1 

An  elaboration  of  the  same  idea.  No  date,  but  it  is  known  that  he 
wrote  this  at  about  the  time  of  his  trip  to  Borneo  in  April,  1892. 

120.  “La  Mano  Roja. “  (The  Red  Hand.) 

Sheet  printed  in  Hong-Kong,  June,  1892,  calling  attention  to  the 
number  of  fires  started  intentionally  in  Manila. 

120  b.  “Ang  Mapulang  Kamay.  ff 

Translation  of  above,  published  in  1894. 

121.  “A  los  Filipinos!  (Testamento  publico. )”  (To  the  Filipinos.) 

Dated  at  Hong-Kong,  June  20,  1892.  Published  in  various  news¬ 
papers  of  the  country.  The  address  to  his  countrymen  to  be  made  public 
in  case  of  his  death. 

122.  “Notas  de  Sucesos  desde  su  Desembarco  en  Manila,  Procedente 
de  Hong-Kong,  hasta  su  Deportacion  y  Llegada  a  Dapitan.  1892.” 
(Notes  of  Events  from  his  Landing  in  Manila  Arriving  from  Hong- 
Kong  up  to  his  Deportation  and  Arrival  at  Dapitan,  1892.) 

123.  “Cartas  Filosofico-Religiosas  de  Controversia  con  el  P.  Pablo 
Pastells,  S.  J. ”  (Letters  of  His  Philosophical-Religious  Controversy 
with  P.  Pablo  Pastells,  S.  J.) 

124.  “Etnografia  de  la  Isla  de  Mindanao.  “  (Ethnography  of  the 
Island  of  Mindanao.) 

Translated  from  the  German  of  F.  Blumentritt. 

125.  “Ampliacion  a  Mi  Mapa.  “  (Enlargement  of  My  Map.) 

Map  of  the  Island  of  Mindanao,  translated  into  Spanish  by  Rizal 
and  dedicated  to  F.  Blumentritt. 


380  A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

126.  “Estudios  sobre  la  Lengua  Tagala.  ”  (Studies  on  the  Tagalog 
Tongue.) 

Written  in  Dapitan  in  1893  and  first  published  in  “La  Patna”  of 
Manila  in  1899. 

126  b.  “Manga  Pag-Aaral  sa  Wikang  Tagalog  na  Sinulat  ni  Dr. 
Jose  Rizal.  ” 

Tagalog  translation  of  the  foregoing  by  Honorio  Lopez. 

127.  “Canto  del  Viajero.  ”  (Song  of  the  Traveler.) 

Poem  written  in  Dapitan.  First  published  in  1903. 

128.  “Dapitan.” 

Introduction  to  a  work  which  was  never  followed  up. 

129.  “Avesta:  Vendidad.  ” 

An  uncompleted  Spanish  translation. 

130.  “Fragmentos  de  una  Novela  Inedita  y  sin  Concluir.  ”  (Frag¬ 
ments  of  an  Incomplete  and  Unpublished  Novel.) 

Written  in  Dapitan.  Fragments  of  a  novel. 

131.  “  Makamisa.  ” 

Verses  beginning  a  novel  in  Tagalog.  Never  completed. 

132.  “Sociedad  de  Agricultores  Dapitanos.  ”  (Society  of  Dapitan 
Farmers.) 

Statutes  and  by-laws,  Dapitan,  1895. 

133.  “Mi  Retiro:  A  Mi  Madre. ”  My  Retirement:  To  My  Mother.) 
Poem  written  in  Dapitan,  1895.  First  published  in  “Republica 

Filipina”  in  1898. 

133  b.  “Ang  Ligpit  Kong  Pamumuhay:  Sa  Aking  Ina.  ” 

Tagalog  translation  of  the  above  by  Honorio  Lopez. 

134.  “Himno  a  Talisay.  ”  (Hymn  to  Talisay.) 

Composed  in  Dapitan,  October  13,  1895. 

135.  “La  Curacion  de  los  Hechizados.”  (The  Cure  for  the 
Bewitched.) 

An  article  believed  to  be  unpublished. 

136.  “Comparative  Tagalog  Grammar.” 

Written  in  English.  Incomplete. 

137.  “Datos  para  Mi  Defensa.”  (Points  for  My  Defense.) 

Written  in  Santiago  Prison,  December  12,  1896. 

138.  “Manifiesto — a  Algunos  Filipinos.”  (Manifesto — To  Certain 

Filipinos.) 

Manila,  Santiago  Prison,  December  15,  1896.  This  was  published  by 
many  newspapers  in  the  country. 

139.  “Adiciones  a  Mi  Defensa.”  (Additions  to  My  Defense.) 
Manila,  December  26,  1896. 

140.  “Ultimo  pensamiento. ”  (Last  Thoughts.) 

The  poem  written  in  the  chapel,  a  few  nights  before  his  death.  The 
original  manuscript  was  unsigned  and  written  on  ordinary  ruled  paper. 
Alcohol  stains  (from  the  lamp)  can  still  be  seen  on  the  original  where 
it  blurred  the  ink.  The  above  title  was  given  to  the  poem  by  Mr.  Ponce. 

Under  the  title  “Ultimo  Adios”  (My  Last  Farewell)  it  was  pub¬ 
lished  in  “La  Independencia, ”  September  25,  1898. 

It  has  been  translated  into  many  languages,  including  the  island 
dialects,  French,  English,  German,  Chinese,  and  Japanese. 

141.  “French  Composition  Exercises,”  by  Jose  Rizal,  B.  A.,  Ph.  M., 


A  RIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


381 


L.  C.  M.  (Madrid),  Postgraduate  student  in  Paris,  Leipzig,  Heidelberg, 
Berlin  and  London.  Manila,  1912.  Philippine  Education  Company. 

142.  * ‘  The  Indolence  of  the  Filipino,  ”  by  J ose  Rizal,  translated  by 
Charles  Derbyshire,  edited  by  Austin  Craig,  Manila,  1913. 

143.  “  Rizal ’s  Own  Story  of  His  Life.  ”  National  Book  Company, 
1918. 

Contains  also  ‘  ‘  Rizal ’s  First  Reading  Lesson,  ”  ‘ ‘  Rizal  ’s  Childhood 
Impressions, ’ ’  ‘‘The  Spanish  Schools  of  Rizal ’s  Boyhood,”  “The 
Turkey  That  Caused  the  Calamba  Land  Trouble,  ”  “  Mariang  Makiling,  ’ ’ 
and  other  short  pieces. 

144.  “Manila  en  1872.” 

An  article  by  Rizal  discovered  after  his  death  and  published  in  the 
Manila  “Citizen,”  January  9,  1919. 

145.  “Cartas  &  un  Jesuita. ” 

Another  posthumous  article,  published  in  the  Manila  “Citizen,” 
February  7,  1919. 

The  following  books  and  articles  relating  to  Rizal  may  also  be  noted: 

“The  Story  of  Rizal,”  Hugh  Clifford,  “Blackwood’s,”  November, 
1902. 

“ Rizal ’s  Views  on  Race  Differences,”  “Popular  Science  Monthly,” 
July,  1902. 

“The  Future  of  the  Philippines,”  M.  F.  Steele,  “The  Nation,” 
March  27,  1902. 

“A  Filipino  That  Died  for  His  Country,”  “Literary  Digest,”  July 
26,  1919. 

“ Rizal ’s  Picture  of  the  Philippines  under  Spain,”  “Review  of  Re¬ 
views,”  May,  1913. 

“The  Martyred  Novelist  of  the  Philippines,”  “Current  Opinion,” 
April,  1913. 

“The  Malay  Novelist,”  “The  Nation,”  January  9,  1913. 

“The  Composite  Rizal,”  “The  Nation,”  April  10,  1913. 

“The  Life  of  Jose  Rizal,  a  Chronology  by  Austin  Craig,”  “The 
Manila  Independent,”  December  31,  1921. 

‘  ‘  Autograf  os  de  Rizal,  ’  ’  Fernando  Canon,  ‘  ‘  The  Manila  Inde¬ 
pendent,  ”  December  31,  1921. 

“Paginas  In&litas  de  Rizal”  (Dapitan),  “Dia  Filipino,”  Manila, 
June  19,  1918. 

“Rizal  en  Hong -Kong,”  by  Vicente  Sotto,  in  “ Renacimiento  Fili¬ 
pino,”  Manila,  July  7,  1913. 

“ Rizal ’s  Story  of  His  Life,”  the  Manila  “Citizen,”  August  and 
September,  1918. 

“Rizal  and  Philippine  Nationalism,”  by  Jos6  Melencio,  the  Manila 
“Citizen,”  February  21,  1919. 

‘  ‘  Rizal  as  a  Historian,  ’  ’  by  Austin  Craig,  ‘  ‘  Philippine  Herald,  ’  ’ 
Manila,  July  10,  1921. 

“The  Song  of  the  Wanderer,”  translated  by  Arthur  Ferguson,  “Dia 
Filipino,”  June,  1918. 

“The  Song  of  the  Wanderer,”  translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire, 
“Philippine  Journal  of  Education,”  Manila,  December,  1919. 

“To  My  Muse,”  translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire,  “Philippine  Jour¬ 
nal  of  Education,”  December,  1919. 


382 


A  EIZAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


“To  the  Flowers  of  Heidelberg, * ’  translated  by  Charles  Derbyshire, 
“Philippine  Journal  of  Education,’ ’  December,  1919. 

“Rizal  as  a  Poet,”  by  Eliseo  Hervas,  “Philippine  Journal  of  Edu¬ 
cation,”  1919. 

“Inspiring  Traits  of  Rizal ’s  Character,”  by  Ignacio  Villamor, 
“Philippine  Journal  of  Education,”  December,  1919. 

“Rizal  as  a  Patriot,  Author,  and  Scientist,”  by  former  Governor- 
General  Francis  Burton  Harrison,  “Philippine  Journal  of  Education,” 
December,  1919. 

“Rizal  as  a  Scientist,”  Benito  Soliven,  “Philippine  Journal  of  Edu¬ 
cation,”  December,  1919. 

“ Rizal ’s  Character,”  by  T.  H.  Pardo  de  Tavera,  published  by  the 
Manila  Filatelica,  1918. 

‘  ‘  The  Story  of  J ose  Rizal,  *  ’  by  Austin  Craig,  published  by  the  Philip¬ 
pine  Education  Publishing  Company,  1909. 

“Revista  Filipina, ”  Manila,  December,  1916,  a  Rizal  number,  with 
articles  by  Mariano  Ponce,  Epifanio  de  los  Santos,  and  others. 

“Murio  el  Doctor  Rizal  Cristianamente?  Reconstitucion  de  las  Ulti¬ 
mas  Horas  de  Su  Vida.”  Estudio  Historico  por  Gonzalo  M.  Pinana, 
Barcelona,  1920. 


INDEX 


Agents  provocateurs,  work  in  the 
Philippines,  95,  124-125;  274. 

Aguinaldo,  Emilio,  Filipino  gen¬ 
eral  and  statesman,  first  presi¬ 
dent  of  the  Philippine  Republic: 
his  military  gifts,  313 ;  birth 
and  education,  320;  a  farmer  in 
Cavite,  320;  joins  the  Katipu- 
nan,  320 ;  advanced  to  high  com¬ 
mands,  321 ;  chosen  head  of  pro¬ 
visional  government,  March  12, 
1897,  321;  invited  by  Dewey  to 
join  him  in  the  war  against 
Spain,  324;  his  amazing  suc¬ 
cesses  against  Spanish  troops 
and  final  triumph,  324;  capture 
by  the  Americans,  326. 

Andrade,  de,  Jose,  lieutenant,  ap¬ 
pointed  Rizal ’s  bodyguard  and 
custodian,  141. 

Andrade,  de,  Luis,  counsel  for 
Rizal  in  his  trial,  295. 

Annus  hystericus,  year  1872,  152. 

Association  Internationale  des 
Philip pinistes,  formed  by  Rizal 
in  1889,  182. 

Ateneo,  the,  Jesuit  school  of  Man¬ 
ila,  character  of,  51. 

Bagumbayan  Field,  place  of  execu¬ 
tion,  4,  38;  Rizal ’s  dedication  of 
his  novel  to  the  memory  of  the 
priests  that  perished  there,  170; 
Rizal ’s  presentiment  concerning, 
209. 

Barcelona,  freedom  of  press  in,  79, 
80. 

Basa,  Jose  Maria,  Filipino  exile 
of  1872,  and  originator  at  Hong- 
Kong  of  La  Liga  Filipina,  244 
(footnote). 

Batle,  Ramon,  friend  of  Rizal,  132. 


Batle,  Teresina,  helps  Rizal  to  in¬ 
troduce  “Noli  Me  Tangere” 
into  the  Philippines,  132. 
“Beside  the  Pasig, M  metrical 
drama,  74. 

Biacnabato,  treaty  of,  arranged 
by  Governor  General  de  Rivera, 
December,  1897,  disregarded  by 
Spaniards,  323. 

Binan,  town  of,  watched  by  Civil 
Guards,  6;  home  of  Jos6  Alberto 
Realonda,  7 ;  seat  of  school  at¬ 
tended  by  Rizal,  35;  his  experi¬ 
ences  there,  told  by  himself,  35- 
37 ;  receives  first  instruction  in 
painting  at,  36. 

Blanco,  Ramon,  Governor  General 
of  the  Philippines,  letter  of  in¬ 
troduction  and  endorsement  fur¬ 
nished  to  Rizal,  281 ;  protects 
Rizal  against  Spaniards  thirst¬ 
ing  for  his  blood,  285;  displaced 
as  result  of  intrigues  of  Rizal ’s 
enemies,  285. 

Blumentritt,  Dr.  Ferdinand,  Ger¬ 
man  scientist:  Rizal ’s  letter  to, 
concerning  “Noli  Me  Tangere, 11 
118-119;  his  friendship  with 
Rizal,  136;  letter  to  Rizal  con¬ 
cerning  shortage  of  doctors  in 
yellow  fever  hospitals  of  Cuba, 
279;  tries  to  get  German  Gov¬ 
ernment  to  intervene  in  behalf 
of  Rizal,  279,  (footnote) ;  trans¬ 
lation  of  his  article  on  Rizal ’s 
view  of  the  race  problem,  Ap¬ 
pendix  D. 

Bonifacio,  Andres,  Filipino  leader : 
birth  and  education,  272;  be¬ 
comes  ardent  advocate  of  liberty, 
272;  founds  the  Katipunan,  273; 
plans  to  rescue  Rizal  from  Dapi- 

383 


384 


INDEX 


tan,  275;  Rizal  refuses,  275; 
sends  Pio  Valenzuela  to  ask 
Rizal  to  head  a  revolution,  276; 
Rizal ’s  refusal  disputed,  276- 
277 ;  determination  to  go  on 
without  Rizal,  277 ;  spread  of 
the  Katipunan,  278;  escape  on 
discovery  of  the  Katipunan,  284 ; 
his  insurgent  forces  give  battle 
to  Spaniards,  320;  defeated  for 
head  of  provisional  government, 
321;  death,  321. 

Bowring,  Sir  John,  English  trav¬ 
eler  and  author,  comments  on 
the  Realonda  household,  8. 

Bracken,  Josephine:  adopted 

daughter  of  an  American  en¬ 
gineer,  267 ;  meeting  with  Rizal, 
268;  betrothal  with  Rizal,  268; 
Taufer’s  attempted  suicide  pre¬ 
vented  by  Rizal,  268;  common 
law  marriage  with  Rizal,  270; 
interview  with  Governor  Gen¬ 
eral  de  Rivera,  329  (footnote). 

Burgos,  Father  Jose,  put  to  death 
on  Bagumbayan  Field,  February 
28,  1872,  4,  38,  116,  170. 

Burgos,  Dr.  Manuel,  intercedes  for 
Rizal,  47. 

Bustamante,  Governor  General, 
slain  in  a  clerical  revolt,  24. 

Calamba,  birthplace  of  Jose  Rizal, 
situation  of,  5;  seized  by  Wey- 
ler’s  artillery,  164;  destruction 
of  tenants’  houses  in,  165. 

Canon,  Fernando,  friend  of  Rizal, 
helps  him  to  introduce  “Noli 
Me  Tangere  ’  ’  into  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  132;  recalls  Rizal ’s  re¬ 
marks  on  the  book,  139. 

Carnicero,  Ricardo,  Captain,  re¬ 
port  to  the  governor  general  of 
a  conversation  with  Rizal  con¬ 
cerning  Rizal ’s  reform  projects, 
262-263. 

Castilla,  Spanish  cruiser,  Rizal ’s 
prison  house  at  Manila,  280. 

Cavite,  insurrection  of,  3,  4,  152. 

Civil  Guard,  the:  detested  by  Fili¬ 
pinos,  6;  excesses  of,  14,  34; 


Rizal ’s  encounter  with  member 
of,  76. 

Claveria,  Governor  General,  man¬ 
ner  of  solving  the  difficulty  of 
family  names  in  the  Philippines, 
30. 

Cooper,  Henry  Allen,  Representa¬ 
tive  in  Congress  from  Wisconsin, 
tribute  to  Rizal  delivered  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  June 
19,  1902,  Appendix  C. 

Coronel,  de  los  Rios,  Spanish 
writer,  cited  to  show  results  of 
cruelty  in  treatment  of  natives, 
193. 

Cruz,  Dr.  Justiniano,  Rizal ’s  first 
schoolmaster,  35. 

Dapitan,  Rizal ’s  place  of  exile: 
247,  253;  its  water  works  built 
by  Rizal,  255-256  (footnote). 

Despujol  Eulogio,  Governor  Gen¬ 
eral  of  the  Philippines :  corre¬ 
spondence  with  Rizal  at  Hong 
Kong,  235-236;  gives  Rizal  a 
safe  conduct,  236;  violates  it, 
246 ;  as  commandant  of  Bar¬ 
celona,  calls  upon  Rizal,  287. 

‘  ‘  Don  ’ts,  ’  ’  Rizal ’s,  precepts  for 
correct  living,  244-245. 

“El  Filibusterismo, ’ ’  Rizal ’s  sec¬ 
ond  novel:  215-232;  Retana’s 
critical  survey  of,  169-170  (foot¬ 
note). 

Eneomendero,  the,  extortions  of, 
practiced  on  natives,  194. 

Europeans  in  the  Far  East,  chief 
blunder  of,  24-25. 

Ferrer,  Francisco,  Spanish  educa¬ 
tor,  killed  in  1909,  144. 

Filipinos,  the :  not  a  backward 
race,  20;  early  culture  of,  20; 
resentful  attitude  toward  Span¬ 
ish  rule,  20;  misunderstood  by 
Europeans,  25;  capacity  for  lov¬ 
ing  and  hating,  25;  instincts  of, 
for  liberty,  25;  excellent  mental¬ 
ity  of,  25;  successive  revolts  of, 
against  Spain,  26 ;  influence  of 
their  women,  121,  123-124;  an- 


INDEX 


385 


cient  excellence  in  arts,  com¬ 
merce,  navigation  and  agricul¬ 
ture,  158 ;  causes  of  their  alleged 
indolence,  184-200;  testimony  of 
de  Morga  concerning,  188;  also 
of  Pigafetta,  188;  ancient  repu¬ 
tation  for  probity  and  industry, 
188;  what  Legaspi’s  expedition 
found,  188;  not  naturally  lazy, 
189 ;  introduction  of  gambling 
among,  197 ;  Spanish  indiffer¬ 
ence  to  agricultural  interests  of 
the  people,  197 ;  conclusions  as 
to  the  “  indolence, 1  ’  200;  high 
moral  standards  among,  211; 
ability  proved  in  peace  and  war, 
314;  insistence  upon  independ¬ 
ence,  327-328;  nature  of  their 
claim  to  freedom,  334-335. 

Filipino  woman,  the:  some  of  her 
traits  indicated,  9 ;  as  portrayed 
in  “Noli  Me  Tangere, ”  95-96; 
her  unusual  worth  and  character, 
121 ;  her  influence  on  the  life  of 
her  people,  123-124. 

Freemasonry,  effect  of,  on  Rizal,  83. 

Friars,  the  four  orders  of:  devel¬ 
opment  of,  in  the  Philippines, 
22 ;  power  of,  23 ;  experiences 
of  Governor  General  Busta¬ 
mante,  24;  subserviency  of 
Weyler  to,  24;  claims  of  on  set¬ 
tlers  ’  lands,  23,  24;  popular 
hatred  of,  25. 

Gil,  Father,  his  part  in  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  the  Katipunan,  285. 

Gomez,  Father  Mariano,  put  to 
death  on  Bagumbayan  Field, 
February  28,  1872:  3-4,  38,  116, 
170. 

Guerrico,  Father:  instructor  at  the 
Ateneo,  Manila,  61;  Rizal ’s  fa¬ 
mous  bust  of  him,  62,  265. 

Gunpowder,  used  by  Filipinos  be¬ 
fore  its  introduction  into  Eu¬ 
rope,  20. 

Harrison,  Francis  Burton,  Gover¬ 
nor  General  of  the  Philippines: 
tribute  of,  to  Rizal,  Appendix  B. 


Herbosa,  Lucia,  Rizal ’s  sister,  ac¬ 
cused  of  importing  treasonable 
documents,  239. 

Herbosa,  Mariano,  Rizal ’s  brother- 
in-law,  death  of  and  indignities 
practiced  on  his  body,  161. 

Hidalgo,  Manuel,  Rizal ’s  brother- 
in-law,  prosecuted  for  sacrilege 
in  revenge  for  “Noli  Me  Tan¬ 
gere,  ’  ’  162. 

Hong  Kong,  Rizal ’s  residence  in, 
234. 

Indio,  Spanish  name  for  Filipino, 
4,  5;  “the  miserable, ”  39. 

Jagor,  Dr.  F.,  German  naturalist, 
effect  of  his  book,  1 1  Travels  in 
the  Philippines,  ’ 1  64-66,  82. 

Japan,  fear  of  ridicule  by  Rizal, 
173-174. 

Katipunan,  the:  founded  by  Boni¬ 
facio  as  revolutionary  society, 
273;  its  growth,  278;  discovered 
by  agents  of  the  government, 
282;  official  hysteria  following 
discovery,  283. 

Kipping,  Henry  C.,  English  engi¬ 
neer,  courtship  of  and  marriage 
with  Leonora  Rivera,  126-129. 

Laguna  de  Bay,  the  great  lake  of 
Luzon,  5. 

La  Liga  Filipina,  formation  by 
Rizal,  243 ;  its  aims  and  pre¬ 
cepts,  244-245;  fourteen  of  its 
members  put  to  death,  311. 

Lam -co,  Chinese  ancestor  of  Jose 
Rizal,  arrival  in  Philippines,  13. 

“La  Solidaridad, ’ 1  revolutionary 
newspaper  of  Madrid:  audacity 
of,  166;  its  editor,  167;  Rizal  7s 
contributions  to,  172,  178,  183. 

Lopez,  Father,  parish  priest  at  Ca- 
lamba,  32. 

Luna,  Antonio,  general  in  the 
Philippine  army :  quarrel  with 
Rizal  in  Madrid,  211;  skilful 
handling  of  his  troops  in  war 
with  the  Americans,  325;  his 


386 


INDEX 


death,  325;  his  place  in  Philip¬ 
pine  history,  334. 

Luna,  Juan,  Filipino  painter, 
friendship  with  Rizal  in  Paris, 
160;  his  career,  160  (footnote). 

Mabini,  Apolinario,  Filipino  jurist, 
statesman  and  leader:  birth  and 
education,  314-315;  philosophical 
democrat,  316;  joins  La  Liga 
Filipina  and  the  Katipunan, 
316;  stricken  with  paralysis 
when  one  of  Bonifacio ’s  chief 
lieutenants,  316;  his  Decalogue, 
317-319;  made  president  of  the 
council  and  secretary  of  foreign 
affairs  in  the  Philippine  Repub¬ 
lic,  324;  organizes  constitutional 
government,  324;  chief  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  325;  cap¬ 
tured  by  the  Americans,  and  im¬ 
prisoned  at  Guam,  326;  his  col¬ 
loquy  with  American  army  of¬ 
ficers,  326-327 ;  his  death,  327. 

Magellan,  Ferdinand :  *  ‘  discovers  ’  ’ 
Philippines,  17 ;  purposes  of  his 
voyage,  19. 

Malayan  mind,  the,  compared  with 
Caucasian,  41. 

Manila,  capture  of,  by  the  Span¬ 
iards,  1570,  17;  by  the  Filipinos 
and  Americans,  1898,  324. 

March,  Father  Estanislao,  spiritual 
attendant  of  Rizal  at  his  slaying, 
307,  308. 

Mercado,  Francisco  Rizal,  father 
of  Jose  Rizal:  his  home  in  Ca- 
lamba,  5 ;  character  and  popu¬ 
larity,  5;  incurs  ill-will  of  Span¬ 
ish  lieutenant  and  of  a  judge, 
7 ;  attempts  to  defend  his  wife, 
11;  manner  of  greeting  his  son; 
61;  sends  money  to  him,  77 
(footnote) ;  insistence  upon  free¬ 
dom  of  speech,  84;  troubles  with 
the  Dominican  estate  manager 
over  turkeys,  163 ;  sturdy  fight 
against  oppression,  164. 

Mercado,  Mrs.  Teodoro  Realonda, 
mother  of  Jose  Rizal:  selected 
for  punishment  because  of  her 


husband ’s  difficulties  with  a 
Civil  Guard  lieutenant,  8 ;  ar¬ 
rested  and  ordered  to  imprison¬ 
ment,  9;  her  character,  10;  vic¬ 
tim  of  Spanish  system  of  vicari¬ 
ous  punishment,  12;  experiences 
with  Philippine  courts,  12-13; 
released  through  intercession  of 
her  daughter,  13 ;  threatened 
with  blindness,  61 ;  successful 
operation  on  her  eyes  by  Jose, 
138;  advice  to  Josephine 
Bracken  concerning  an  ecclesi¬ 
astical  marriage,  269-270;  de¬ 
clines  a  pension  after  the  ex¬ 
pulsion  of  the  Spaniards,  329 
(footnote). 

Missionary  priests,  devotion  and 
labors  of,  18. 

‘ 1  Monte  Cristo,  ’  ’  effect  of  on 
Rizal,  49. 

Morga,  de,  Antonio,  Spanish  pio¬ 
neer  and  author :  book  on  the 
Philippines,  printed  in  1608,  156- 
158;  Rizal ’s  edition,  158;  cited 
against  accusation  of  laziness  in 
Filipinos,  189. 

‘  ‘  My  Last  Farewell,  ’  ’  poem  by 
Rizal,  Appendix  A. 

‘ 1  My  Retreat, 1 1  poem  by  Rizal,  Ap¬ 
pendix  A. 

Names,  confusion  of,  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  29-30. 

“Noli  Me  Tangere, ”  Rizal ’s  first 
novel :  its  scope  and  plan,  93 ; 
characters,  93-96;  its  plot,  97- 
117;  origin  of  the  title,  118. 

Philippine  Islands,  the :  alleged 
‘ 1  discovery  ”  of  by  Magellan, 
17;  extent  of,  17;  seized  by 
Spain,  17 ;  Spanish  policy 
toward,  17-18;  Spain’s  purposes 
commercial  and  material,  18; 
introduction  of  improved  ma¬ 
terial  conditions,  19;  slow 
progress  in,  20 ;  establishment 
of  the  friars  ’  ‘ 1  System  ’ 1  in, 
21-24;  education  in,  52-59; 
educational  system  illustrated 
by  incidents  in  “Noli  Me  Tan- 


INDEX 


387 


gere,”  101-103;  taxation  in, 
145;  Rizal ’s  recast  of  their  fu¬ 
ture,  172-178;  Legaspi’s  expedi¬ 
tion  to,  188;  ravages  of  pirates 
in,  191;  forced  labor  in,  192. 

Philippine  Republic,  provisional 
government  established,  321. 

Pilar,  Marcelo  H.  del,  revolutionist 
editor  of  “La  Solidaridad, ’  ’ 
167. 

Ponce,  Damaso,  friend  of  Rizal, 
132. 

Ponce,  Mariano,  friend  of  Rizal, 
132. 

“Poor  Friars,’ ’  alleged  seditious 
document  said  to  have  been 
found  in  the  baggage  of  Lucia 
Herbosa,  240-242. 

Quarantine  frenzies,  American,  as 
experienced  by  Rizal,  154-155. 

Race  problem,  the,  Rizal ’s  views 
on,  article  by  Professor  Blumen- 
tritt,  Appendix  D. 

Realonda,  Jose  Alberto,  uncle  of 
Jose  Rizal,  home  and  marriage, 
7-8;  troubles  with  his  wife,  8; 
accused  of  conspiracy  to  murder, 
8;  experiences  in  prison,  12. 

Regidor,  Dr.  Antonio,  Filipino 
exile  of  1872  and  friend  of 
Rizal,  159. 

“Reign  of  Terror,”  causes  of,  203. 

Retana,  W.  E.,  Madrid  journalist 
and  author,  challenged  by  Rizal, 
becomes  his  friend,  214. 

Revolution,  American,  influence  of 
on  Rizal ’s  mind  and  course,  67; 
French,  good  results  of  in  the 
Philippines,  22. 

Rivera,  Antonio,  Rizal ’s  uncle  and 
benefactor,  120;  helps  Jos©  to 
escape  from  Manila  and  sends 
him  money,  122. 

Rivera,  Leonora,  Rizal ’s  cousin 
and  sweetheart:  birth  and  par¬ 
entage,  120;  meeting  with  Rizal, 
120;  traits  and  accomplishments, 
120-121;  incident  of  Rizal ’s 
broken  head,  121 ;  betrothed  to 
him,  122;  his  poem  to  her  on  de¬ 


parting,  122;  extracts  from  his 
diary  concerning,  123 ;  Rivera  ;s 
move  to  Dagupan,  124;  anxiety 
of  Leonora ’s  mother  concerning 
Rizal ’s  revolutionary  tendencies, 
125;  arrival  of  Kipping,  125; 
Mrs.  Rivera’s  plan  to  separate 
Leonora  and  Jose,  126,  127 ; 
discovered  by  Leonora  when  too 
late,  128;  marriage  with  Kip¬ 
ping,  and  death,  129. 

Rivera,  Primo  de,  Governor  Gen¬ 
eral  :  attempts  to  make  peace 
with  the  revolutionists  and  ar¬ 
ranges  treaty  of  Biacnabato, 
322;  conversation  with  Josephine 
Bracken  Rizal,  329  (footnote). 

‘ 1  Rizal  day,  ’  ’  observance  of  in 
the  Philippines,  369. 

Rizal,  Jose  Protasio  Rizal  Mer¬ 
cado  Y  Alonzo  Realonda,  son 
of  Francisco  and  Teodora  Mer- 
cades:  introduction  to  the  trou¬ 
bles  of  his  people,  14,  15 ;  his  re¬ 
ceptive  and  powerful  mind,  16; 
birth  of,  28;  early  induction 
info  physical  exercises,  28 ;  an 
attractive  child,  28 ;  early  fond¬ 
ness  for  reading,  29;  origin  of 
his  name,  29;  able  to  read  in 
Spanish  at  five,  30;  learns  from 
his  mother  to  write  poetry,  31; 
incident  of  ‘ 1  The  Moth  and  the 
Candle,”  31-32;  early  studies  in 
art,  32;  friendship  of  Father 
Lopez  for,  32;  boyhood  experi¬ 
ences,  30-35;  early  education, 
35;  at  school  at  Binan,  35-36; 
advanced  to  the  Ateneo,  at  Ma¬ 
nila,  37;  reaction  to  the  slaying 
of  Fathers  Gomez,  Burgos  and 
Zamorra,  38;  observations  on 
racial  hatred  at  the  Ateneo,  39; 
conclusions  concerning,  39-41 ; 
finds  mankind  not  separated 
into  races  but  into  strata,  43 ; 
his  habit  of  independent 
thought,  43;  takes  on  the  cause 
of  his  people,  44-46 ;  first  ex¬ 
periences  at  the  Ateneo,  46-48; 
made  “emperor”  among  the 


388 


INDEX 


boys,  48;  first  prize,  48;  shielded 
by  Paciano,  48;  careful  division 
of  his  time,  50;  effect  of  reading 
‘  ‘  The  Count  of  Monte  Cristo,  ’  ’ 
50;  studies  in  self-mastery,  50; 
character  of  the  Ateneo,  51 ;  dif¬ 
ficulties  of  gaining  an  education, 
52 ;  examples  from  ‘  ‘  The  Class 
in  Physics,”  52-59;  diversions 
and  experiences,  60;  friendship 
with  Father  Guerrico,  61;  early 
achievements  in  sculpture,  61; 
extraordinary  gifts  in,  62;  as  a 
painter  and  draughtsman,  62 ; 
incident  of  the  banner  at  Ca- 
lamba,  62;  early  experiments 
in  poetry,  63-64;  antiquity  of 
Tagalog  poetry,  63 ;  first  poem, 
‘ 1  The  Embarcation,  ’  ’  63  ;  effect 
of  reading  Dr.  Jagor’s  “  Travels 
in  the  Philippines,”  64-66;  ef¬ 
fect  of  the  Centennial  of  Ameri¬ 
can  independence,  66-67 ;  influ¬ 
ence  of  America,  67 ;  his  facility 
in  comic  illustration,  68 ;  his 
prize-wining  poem,  ‘ 1  To  the 
Philippine  Youth,”  69;  Spanish 
resentment  aroused,  71 ;  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  Ateneo, 
March  23,  1876,  72;  enters  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Santo  Tomas,  72; 
wins  literary  competition  in 
honor  of  Cervantes,  with  alle¬ 
gory,  ‘  ‘  The  Council  of  the 
Gods,”  73;  deprived  of  his 
prize,  74;  writes  drama,  “Be¬ 
side  the  Pasig,”  74;  attacked  by 
Civil  Guard,  76;  determines  to 
leave  the  Philippines,  and  sails 
for  Europe,  77;  excitement  of 
the  government  over  his  disap¬ 
pearance,  78;  observations  in 
Barcelona,  79;  enters  University 
of  Madrid,  80 ;  studies  and 
friendships  there,  80-82;  effect 
on  him  of  reading  the  lives  of 
the  presidents  of  the  United 
States,  82 ;  becomes  a  freemason, 
83 ;  religious  convictions,  84 ;  his 
sacrifices,  84;  school  records  at 
Manila  and  Madrid,  85-87 ;  his 


prizes,  88;  goes  to  Paris  and  as¬ 
sociates  himself  with  Dr.  De 
Weckert,  88;  effect  of  reading 
“Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin,”  88;  re¬ 
solves  to  write  a  novel  on  Philip¬ 
pine  conditions,  88;  begins, 
“Noli  Me  Tangere,  ”  89; 

equipment  as  a  novelist,  89;  at 
Heidelberg,  89,  90;  at  Leipzig 
and  Berlin,  91;  association  with 
Virchow,  91 ;  error  about  method 
of  winning  freedom,  91 ;  views 
about  Philippine  ihdependenee, 
92;  completion  of  “Noli  Me 
Tangere,  ”  93 ;  its  theme  and 
characters,  93-96;  its  plot,  97- 
117;  extreme  poverty,  130;  dif¬ 
ficulties  about  bringing  out 
“Noli  Me  Tangere,”  130;  re¬ 
lieved  by  Maximo  Viola,  131 ; 
facts  concerning  the  writing  and 
printing  of  the  novel,  132;  dif¬ 
ficulties  about  introducing  it  in 
the  Philippines,  132;  solved  by 
Bizal ’s  friends,  Messrs.  Canon, 
Ponce,  Batle  and  Miss  Teresina 
Batle,  132-133 ;  effect  of  in  the 
Philippines,  133-134;  efforts  of 
government  to  suppress,  133-136; 
indignation  of  the  governing 
class,  134-135;  goes  on  walking 
tour  with  Viola,  136;  reception 
by  the  scientists  of  Dresden, 
136;  friendship  with  Dr.  Ferdi¬ 
nand  Blumentritt,  137 ;  at  Leit- 
meritz,  with  the  Blumentritts, 
137 ;  at  Vienna  with  Nordenfels, 
the  novelist,  and  others,  137 ;  at 
Rome,  137 ;  determines  to  return 
to  Philippines,  137 ;  arrival  at 
Manila,  138;  successful  opera¬ 
tion  on  his  mother ’s  eyes,  138 ; 
his  comment  on  “Noli  Me  Tan¬ 
gere”  and  tribute  to  Viola,  139; 
Mr.  Canon  on  Rizal’s  voice,  139; 
summoned  before  Governor  Gen¬ 
eral  Terrero,  140;  his  defense  of 
“Noli  Me  Tangere,”  140;  peril 
because  of  the  resentment  of  the 
governing  class,  141;  Jose  de 
Andrade  appointed  as  his  body- 


INDEX 


389 


guard  and  custodian,  141;  study 
of  taxation  problems,  145-147 ; 
results  of  his  investigations, 
147;  his  power  and  influence 
among  his  people,  147,  148;  con¬ 
sents  to  Terrero ’s  veiled  deporta- 
tion  order,  148 ;  views  on  separa¬ 
tion  from  Spain,  149;  reforms 
he  demanded,  149,  150;  goes  to 
Hong  Kong,  152;  observations 
there  among  the  Filipino  exiles, 
152;  in  Japan,  153;  astonishing 
feat  of  mastering  the  Japanese 
language  in  a  month,  153 ;  ar¬ 
rival  at  San  Francisco,  154;  ex¬ 
periences  with  American  quaran¬ 
tine  system,  154-155;  observa¬ 
tions  on  the  United  States,  156; 
arrival  in  London,  156;  Antonio 
de  Morga’s  book,  157;  athletic 
exercises,  158-159;  friendship 
with  family  of  Dr.  Antonio 
Kegidor,  Filipino  exile  in  Lon¬ 
don,  159;  reasons  for  going  to 
Paris,  159 ;  association  there 
with  Juan  Luna,  160;  hears  in 
London  of  persecution  of  his 
family  and  protests  to  “La  Soli- 
daridad,  ”  166;  nature  of  the 
publication,  167 ;  quarrel  with  del 
Pilar,  167 ;  retirement  to  Ghent 
to  write  ‘  ‘  El  Filibusterismo,  ’  ’ 
168;  character  of  this  novel, 
169;  its  dedication  to  the  three 
priests,  victims  of  1872  on  Ba- 
gumbayan  Field,  170;  articles 
on  1 1  The  Philippines  a  Century 
Hence,”  172;  ability  of  the  Is¬ 
landers  to  take  care  of  them¬ 
selves,  173-175 ;  the  fiery  manifes¬ 
to  of  March,  1889, 179-180;  mas¬ 
tery  of  French,  182;  organizes 
the  “Association  Internationale 
des  Philippinistes,  ’  ’  182 ;  ‘  ‘  The 
Indolence  of  the  Filipino,”  183- 
200 ;  manufactured  prejudice 
against  the  Filipino  people,  183 ; 
Filipino  culture,  183 ;  climatic 
influences,  184-186;  responsibil¬ 
ity  of  the  Spaniards,  187-198; 
testimony  of  the  first  visitors, 


188-190;  real  reasons  for  Fili¬ 
pino  indifference,  192-196;  goes 
to  Madrid  to  seek  protection  for 
his  family,  202;  his  views  about 
war,  202,  203 ;  appearance  and 
manners  when  he  was  thirty-one 
years  old,  205;  reticence  about 
himself,  205;  restraint  in  talk¬ 
ing,  205;  fondness  for  physical 
exercise,  206;  Senator  Sandiko’s 
recollections,  206;  facility  in 
making  friends,  207 ;  self-pos¬ 
session,  207;  fondness  for  music, 
flowers  and  poetry,  208;  a  chess 
player,  208;  presentiment  about 
his  death,  209;  his  quarrels  in 
Madrid,  210-211;  his  “truly  up¬ 
right  moral  sense,  ’  ’  211 ;  his  un¬ 
selfishness,  212;  summary  of  his 
moral  character,  213-214;  plot 
of  “El  Filibusterismo,”  215- 
232;  failure  to  gain  protection 
at  Madrid,  233 ;  drawn  again 
to  the  Far  East,  233-234;  set¬ 
tlement  at  Hong  Kong,  234; 
professional  success  there,  234; 
plans  to  found  a  colony  in  North 
Borneo,  234-235;  visited  by  his 
sister  Lucia,  234;  correspondence 
with  Governor  General  Despujol, 
235-236;  the  famous  “safe-con¬ 
duct,”  236;  sails  for  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  236;  farewell  addresses  to 
his  countrymen  and  to  his  fam¬ 
ily,  237-239;  landing  at  Manila, 
Lucia  accused  of  bringing  in 
treasonable  documents,  234;  the 
tract  called  “The  Poor  Friars,” 
translated  in  full,  240-242;  proj¬ 
ect  of  1  ‘  La  Liga  Filipina,  ’  ’  243  ; 
Brizal’s  precepts  for  his  fellow 
members,  244-245 ;  arrested, 
246 ;  imprisoned,  247 ;  exiled  to 
Dapitan,  247;  Despujol ’s  sophis¬ 
tical  defense  in  the  ‘  ‘  Official  Ga¬ 
zette,”  249;  BizaUs  own  ac¬ 
count,  250-253 ;  arrival  at  Dapi¬ 
tan,  253 ;  division  of  his  time 
and  labors,  254;  scientific  ex¬ 
plorations,  254-255 ;  opens  a 
school,  255;  constructs  a  light- 


390 


INDEX 


ing  system  and  water  works, 
255;  his  place  and  achievements 
in  science,  256;  his  standing  as 
an  oculist,  256;  as  an  ethnolo¬ 
gist,  257 ;  his  valuable  collections 
in  natural  history,  257 ;  as  a  lin¬ 
guist,  258 ;  friendship  with  Dr. 
Reinhold  Rost  and  studies  in 
psychology,  259 ;  his  place  as  a 
poet,  259;  poem  “My  Retreat,’ ’ 
written  at  Dapitan,  259-260 ; 
work  in  sociology,  260;  report  of 
a  conversation  with  Captain  Ri¬ 
cardo  Carnicero  on  reforms  in 
the  Philippines,  260-261 ;  disa¬ 
greeable  letter  from  Father 
Pastella,  superior  of  the  Jesuits, 
262;  Rizal’s  answer,  262-263; 
letter  to  his  nephew,  264;  his 
bust  of  Father  Guerrico,  265; 
his  activities  in  sculpture,  265; 
meeting  with  Josephine  Bracken; 
betrothal  to  her,  268;  diffi¬ 
culties  in  the  way  of  their  mar¬ 
riage  by  the  church,  268-269; 
common  law  marriage  substi¬ 
tuted,  270;  correspondence  with 
Governor  General  Despujol  about 
the  settlement  of  his  family  at 
Dapitan,  270;  introduces  modern 
agricultural  machinery  from  the 
United  States,  271;  manner  of 
life  at  Dapitan,  278;  studies  in 
Tagalog,  279;  letter  from  Dr. 
Blumentritt  concerning  shortage 
of  doctors  in  Cuba  while  yellow 
fever  rages  there,  279;  applies 
to  Governor  General  Blanco  for 
permission  to  go  to  Cuba  as 
volunteer  surgeon  and  is  ac¬ 
cepted,  279;  departure  from  Ma¬ 
nila,  280;  held  on  board  Spanish 
cruiser,  Castilla,  280;  courtesy 
of  captain  of  Castilla,  280;  let¬ 
ter  of  introduction  and  endorse¬ 
ment  from  Governor  General 
Blanco,  281;  departure  from 
Manila  on  Isla  de  Panay,  281 ; 
discovery  of  the  Katipunan,  282; 
peril  of  Rizal  as  result,  284; 
protected  by  Blanco,  285; 


Blanco  succeeded  by  Polavieja, 
285;  Rizal  importuned  by  Pedro 
P.  Roxas  to  escape  from  his 
enemies  at  Singapore,  but  re¬ 
fuses,  286;  arrested  at  Suez,  286 ; 
returned  to  Philippines,  287 ;  fail¬ 
ure  of  plot  to  force  his  rescue  at 
Singapore,  287-288;  again  a 
prisoner  at  Fort  Santiago,  289; 
torturing  of  his  brother,  Paciano, 
290;  address  from  prison  to  his 
countrymen,  291-292 ;  farcical 
nature  of  charges  against  him, 
292-294;  his  trial  a  judicial  mur¬ 
der,  295 ;  found  guilty  of  treason 
and  sentenced  to  be  shot,  295; 
his  poem,  “My  Last  Farewell,’’ 
296-298;  last  hours,  298-304; 
his  alleged  retraction,  301-303; 
efforts  to  save  him,  303;  alleged 
vindictiveness  of  Spanish  Queen 
Regent,  304;  his  last  request, 
307 ;  shot  to  death  on  Bagum- 
bayan  Field,  December  30,  1896, 
307-309;  joy  of  the  crowd  of 
Spaniards,  310;  attempts  to 
obliterate  his  memory  and  insult 
his  dust,  310;  slaughter  of  his 
companions  in  La  Liga  Filipina, 
311;  resentment  of  the  Filipinos, 
312;  summary  of  his  influence 
and  results  of  his  efforts,  327- 
328;  recognition  by  his  country¬ 
men,  328 ;  tributes  to  his  mem¬ 
ory,  329;  review  of  his  career, 
traits  and  views,  332-334. 

Rizal,  Paciano,  brother  of  Jose: 
pupil  at  the  College  of  San 
Jose,  Manila,  37 ;  friend  of  Fa¬ 
ther  Burgos,  37 ;  portrayed  as 
Tasio  the  philosopher  in  “Noli 
Me  Tangere,’’  119;  banished  to 
Mindoro  on  a  fictitious  charge  of 
sedition,  162;  tortured  by  Span¬ 
iards  to  cause  him  to  implicate 
Jose,  290;  enlists  in  revolution¬ 
ary  army,  312;  rank  there,  312 
(footnote). 

Rizal,  Trinidad,  sister  of  Jose 
Rizal  and  recipient  of  his  last 
bequest,  303. 


INDEX 


391 


Host,  Dr.  Reinhold,  scientist,  friend 
of  Rizal,  259. 

Roxas,  Pedro  P.,  Philippine  pa¬ 
triot:  escape  from  the  Isla  de 
Panay,  286. 

Sandiko,  Teodoro,  Filipino  Senator, 
reminiscences  of  Rizal,  206. 

San  Agustin,  de,  Gaspar,  Spanish 
writer,  cited  to  show  disastrous 
results  of  Spanish  policy  in 
Philippines,  192,  195. 

Sculpture  and  painting,  Rizal  7s 
facility  in,  62. 

Sevilla,  Miss  Salud,  biographer  of 
Leonora  Rivera,  (footnote)  120, 
128. 

Shaw,  George  Bernard,  cited  on 
footless  practices  of  race  preju¬ 
dice,  197. 

Spain  in  the  Philippines:  tortures 
used,  4,  7,  97 ;  attitude  toward 
the  natives,  4-5;  Judicial  system 
maintained,  8,  11,  12;  the  cen¬ 
sorship,  16;  backward  condition 
of  the  Islands  under  Spanish 
rule,  16-17 ;  basis  of  claims  to 
the  Philippines,  17 ;  subdues  is¬ 
lands  by  force,  17 ;  introduces 
Christianity,  17-18;  cultural 
blessings  of  Spanish  rule,  17-18; 
beneficent  labors,  19 ;  net  ad¬ 
vantages  and  disadvantages  of 
Spanish  occupation,  18-19 ;  re¬ 
striction  of  Philippine  trade,  22; 
Spanish  policy  in  fostering  na¬ 
tive  dissensions,  26 ;  Spanish  rule 
provocative  of  Filipino  revolts, 
26;  official  excitement  over  dis¬ 
appearance  of  one  student,  78; 
the  Spanish  emigre,  95;  Spanish 
system  of  education  described 
and  exemplified  in  “Noli  Me 
Tangere, 77  100-103;  Rizal ’s  view 
of  possible  reforms  under,  150; 
official  hysteria  following  revolt 
of  1872;  deductions  from  de 
Morga ’s  testimonies,  157 ;  pre¬ 
tense  to  the  world  that  the 
Filipino  was  a  savage  refuted, 
158;  Spanish  ideas  of  vicarious 


vengeance,  161;  Rizal ’s  review 
of  the  Spanish  record,  183-200; 
fatal  results  of  Spain’s  early 
policy  of  forced  army  service  in 
the  Philippines,  190;  piracy  en¬ 
couraged  by  Spanish  officers, 
191;  neglect  of  agriculture,  197; 
further  illustrations  of  the  ju¬ 
dicial  and  governing  system,  218- 
230;  panic  and  hysteria  follow¬ 
ing  discovery  of  the  Katipunan, 
282-284 ;  torturing  of  Paciano 
Rizal,  290;  Spanish  illusions  as 
to  permanence  of  Spain’s  power, 
310;  downfall  of  Spain  in  the 
Philippines,  324. 

System,  the,  in  the  Philippines,  15 ; 
revolt  against  as  affected  by  tax¬ 
ation  problem,  147. 

Tagalog  poetry,  antiquity  of,  63. 

Tavera,  de,  Dr.  T.  H.  Pardo, 
quoted  on  Spanish  occupation  of 
Philippines,  19-22. 

Terrerero,  Governor  General,  atti¬ 
tude  toward  Rizal,  140,  141,  143 ; 
unwilling  to  have  Rizal  killed, 
143 ;  consents  to  veiled  order  of 
deportation,  144. 

f  ‘  The  Class  in  Physics,  ’  ’  Rizal ’s 
description  of,  52-59. 

‘ 1  The  Council  of  the  Gods,  ’  ’  lit¬ 
erary  competition,  73. 

‘ 1  The  Indolence  of  the  Filipino,  ’  ’ 
Rizal ’s  masterly  investigation, 
183-200. 

‘  ‘  The  Philippines  a  Century 
Hence,  ’  ’  articles  by  Rizal  in 
“La  Solidaridad,”  172-178. 

‘ 1  The  Song  of  the  Traveler,  ’  ’  poem 
by  Rizal,  Appendix  A. 

‘  ‘  To  Education,  ’  ’  poem  by  Rizal, 
Appendix  A. 

1 1  To  My  Muse,  ’  7  poem  by  Rizal, 
Appendix  A. 

‘ 1  To  the  Flowers  of  Heidelberg,  ’ 7 
poem  by  Rizal,  Appendix  A. 

“To  the  Philippine  Youth,”  poem 
by  Rizal,  Appendix  A. 

“To  the  Virgin  Mary,”  sonnet  by 
Rizal,  Appendix  A. 


392 


INDEX 


“Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin,”  effect  on 
Rizal  of,  88. 

United  States:  Jagor’s  prophecy 
concerning,  64-66;  influence  of 
on  Rizal,  64,  82;  effects  of  read¬ 
ing  the  lives  of  the  presidents 
of,  82. 

University  of  Madrid,  Rizal ’s  ex¬ 
periences  and  record  at,  80, 
86-87. 

Valenzuela,  Pio,  Filipino  leader, 
sent  by  Bonifacio  to  confer  with 
Rizal  at  Dapitan,  276. 

Villaclara,  Father  Jose,  spiritual 
attendant  of  Rizal  at  his  slaying, 
307. 

Viola,  Maximo,  friend  and  fellow 
student  with  Rizal,  relieves  his 
necessities  in  Berlin  and  helps 
him  to  publish  “Noli  Me  Tan- 
gere,  ”  131;  on  a  walking  tour 
with,  in  Switzerland  and  Ger¬ 
many,  136. 

Virchow,  Rudolph,  Dr.,  scientist 
and  philosophical  democrat,  ef¬ 


fect  of  his  friendship  on  Rizal, 
91. 

Warless  world,  A,  Rizal ’s  views 
on,  203. 

Weckert,  de,  famous  oculist  with 
whom  Rizal  was  associated  in 
Paris,  88. 

Weyler,  Emiliano,  governor  general 
of  the  Philippines :  obsequious 
to  the  friars,  24 ;  cruelty  and 
rapacity  of,  165 ;  sends  artillery 
to  overawe  the  settlers,  165;  in¬ 
criminating  papers  found  against 
in  archives  of  Manila,  166. 

“White  Man’s  Burden,”  142,  143, 
147. 

“You  Ask  Me  for  Verses,”  poem 
by  Rizal,  Appendix  A. 

Zamorra,  Father  Jacinto,  put  to 
death  on  Bagumbayan  Field, 
February  28,  1872,  4,  38,  116, 
170. 


Date  Due 

30  as 

* 

ft  Es  '4; 

• 

ft 

